Elon Musk’s social media platform X is taking very daring measures to cut back cryptocurrency scams on its web site. As highlighted by Wu Blockchain, Head of Product at X, Nikita Bier said this just lately as a technique to restrict exploitation of X accounts that beforehand lacked any crypto actions.
X introduces auto-lock, verification for first-time crypto posts
In accordance with Bier, X is introducing a brand new anti-scam coverage often known as “auto-locking and verification” for any account posting about cryptocurrency for the primary time in its historical past. This transfer is meant to stop malicious attackers who hack the accounts of celebrities or influencers from exploiting it for crypto scams.
Prior to now, hackers have taken over social media accounts of celebrities to immediately promote rip-off tokens or have interaction in sending phishing mail to unsuspecting followers.
With this new function, when such strikes are initiated by the hacker, X will routinely lock the account and demand “id verification” earlier than the submit can proceed. Bier claims that this might take away as much as 999% of the financial incentive for malicious actors who make use of this rip-off methodology.
Past celeb accounts, there may be additionally a rise within the variety of new X accounts being created particularly to advertise crypto scams. Many customers have been tricked into sending cash or revealing non-public pockets data.
Nonetheless, with this new coverage, hackers is perhaps discouraged from taking on present accounts or creating faux accounts to rip-off. It’s because as soon as the account is auto-locked, with out id verification, it should stay “quickly locked.”
The event might be certain that rip-off makes an attempt fail instantly after they’re tried, even with out the sufferer initiating any complaints of a compromised account.
X criticizes Google over phishing safety
Bier additionally took a swipe at Google, stating that this coverage turned needed to guard X customers for the reason that tech large was not “doing sufficient to cease the phishing mails.”
You Would possibly Additionally Like
He’s implying that e-mail suppliers like Gmail will not be taking proactive steps to cease phishing scams, therefore, X has determined so as to add its personal safety layer.
The U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) in 2024 additionally recognized “pig butchering” as one of many most prevalent types of crypto rip-off. The FBI defined that attackers usually create faux on-line identities, both by stealing photographs or utilizing AI-generated photos to trick potential victims on social media platforms or courting websites.
Malicious attackers have at all times posed a risk to crypto customers, with totally different stakeholders evolving other ways to restrict their assault frequencies. In December 2025, Binance founder Changpeng Zhao recommended tackling “poisoning scams” via adoption of real-time blacklist queries.