Team Shanghai Alice Twitter Account Hacked, Was Used to Promote Cryptocurrency Scam

Yesterday at 8:21 PM Japan Standard Time, the Twitter account of Touhou Project developer Team Shanghai Alice and creator Jun’ya Ohta was hacked. The alleged attacker shared a link to a shady website in an attempt to promote a cryptocurrency scam.

The official Team Shanghai Alice Twitter account which goes by the handle “korindo” has over half a million followers. At the time this story was written, the malicious tweet shown in the header was already deleted.

The account made no statement on what happened or who hacked them, but the official Touhou Project website issued the following statement (translated from Japanese):

Recently, Jun’ya Ohta’s Twitter account was hacked, which has gotten out of hand. We have contacted Twitter about this.

Very little information is available at the moment, but all recent tweets made from the account are considered fake. They posted dangerous links which we absolutely not recommend clicking.

We apologize for any inconvenience, but we hope to get it restored as soon as possible.

The attack didn’t stop Ohta from making a guest appearance at the Happinet booth at the upcoming Tokyo Game Show this incoming Sunday. The news of the attack came at the same time the OpenAI Newsroom Twitter account was hacked and promoted a similar scam. A couple days ago, the YouTube channel of the Supreme Court of India was also hacked with the same thing.

Law enforcement agencies around the world have been aggressively pursuing individuals who have engaged in bitcoin-related fraud. Recently, U.S. authorities arrested two individuals for conspiracy of laundering by stealing over $230 million from a victim in Washington D.C. Cryptocurrency fraud is a federal offense under Section 1348 of the United States Criminal Code (Title 18) and is punishable by up to 25 years in prison and/or a $250,000 fine.

In recent years, hackers have been compromising websites and social media accounts to promote cryptocurrency fraud. It is recommended that users secure their accounts with multifactor authentication and not use the same password on multiple websites.

Sources

• https://cybernews.com/crypto/bitcoin-social-engineering-scheme/
• https://www.downtoearth.org.in/science-technology/cyberattack-hits-supreme-courts-youtube-channel-showcasing-cryptocurrency-promotion
• https://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/text/18/1348
• https://www.indiatoday.in/technology/news/story/an-official-openai-account-was-hacked-to-promote-cryptocurrency-scam-2605460-2024-09-24
• https://touhou-project.news/news/12554/ (in Japanese)