Coins.ph Social Media Hack Promotes Fake $COINSPH Token
On December 2, the official X account of Coins.ph, a major cryptocurrency exchange in the Philippines, was hacked. Hackers used the platform to drop a new token called $COINSPH, falsely claiming to be running under Pump.fun on the Solana network.
Scammers claim that some social media accounts are brokering the $COINSPH token, similar to the ETF, and are asking people to interact with specific contract addresses.
Disguised phishing scam
Hackers took advantage of the misconception of Solana’s low fees and high speeds to make it look like a real pyramid scheme. The posts requested direct purchases of tokens tagged “Crypto Trend Compass” and ordered users to “buy $COINSPH now and become an early supporter.”
Fortunately, the Coins.ph scam only occurred on its X account, and there is no misinformation about the incident on its official Facebook page or anywhere else.
Fast response from Coins.ph
Coins.ph quickly addressed the issue and removed the infected messages by 12:33 pm that day. The exchange warned users not to do this and asked them not to use tokens or contract addresses.
In an effort to appease angry customers, Coins.ph explained that the main servers and operations were not compromised and were not harmed during the attack. To this end, the exchange said it will continue to improve existing security measures to prevent further harassment.
The incident has brought into focus the threat of cybercriminals attacking social media platforms to obtain cryptocurrency. It is important to note that new announcements, as well as time-sensitive promotions, need to be checked and verified with other sources of truth before action is taken.
