PSYOP creator Ben.eth vows to refund victims after Steve Aoki hack leads to $170k in losses PSYOP creator Ben.eth vows to refund victims after Steve Aoki hack leads to $170k in losses
Ben.eth unwittingly quote tweeted the post containing the phishing link thinking it was from the real Steve Aoki.
1 min read
Updated: Jul. 10, 2023 at 5:00 pm UTC
Cover art/illustration via CryptoSlate. Image includes combined content which may include AI-generated content.
Ben.eth, the founder of $PSYOP, promised to refund everyone who lost their Ethereum to a phishing scam that he quote-tweeted to his followers.
He asked victims to reach out via email and confirm they had their funds stolen.
Steve Aoki hacked
On-chain sleuth Zachxbt tweeted on May 26 that hackers had compromised Steve Aoki’s Twitter account to perpetrate a phishing scam using a fake airdrop link for the $PSYOP memecoin.
Ben.eth unwittingly quote tweeted the post containing the phishing link thinking it was from the real Steve Aoki — leading to roughly $170,000 in losses for people exposed to the link.
Victims approached Zachxbt after falling prey to the scam. He quickly raised the alarm and alerted Ben.eth, who immediately deleted the tweet to stop any further losses.
Ben.eth responded on Twitter and said he was unaware the account was hacked. He said:
“I DID NOT KNOW AOKI WAS HACKED. HOW COULD I?”
Aoki did not make a public statement on the matter and has yet to respond to CryptoSlate’s request for comment.
Hack possibly by disgruntled investors
Following the hack, Ben.eth said Aoki’s account was most likely hacked by disgruntled investors who “missed the presale” and are now trying to “recoup their unrealized gains.”
He did not provide any evidence to back his claims, and it is unclear whether the statement was made in jest.
Zachxbt’s on-chain investigation revealed the hackers moved most of the ETH to an unknown wallet. However, they also moved some ETH to an address that is linked to a previous attack.
Roughly 26 ETH was moved to the following address, which was behind the andy8052 sim swap and swatting attack, according to Zachxbt.
“0x991004f6db5013843c18e653644dbb0b8e2f6056f092d8200c478f4ac28fec0e.“
Author 
Assad Jafri
AJ, a passionate journalist since Yemen's 2011 Arab Spring, has honed his skills worldwide for over a decade. Specializing in financial journalism, he now focuses on crypto reporting.
Featured Story
Advertise Here
In this article
Ethereum is a decentralized, open-source blockchain platform that enables the creation of smart contracts and decentralized applications (DApps).