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Elon Musk's social media platform X is taking very bold measures to reduce cryptocurrency scams on its site. As highlighted by Wu Blockchain, Head of Product at X, Nikita Bier stated this recently as a way to limit exploitation of X accounts that previously lacked any crypto activities.
X introduces auto-lock, verification for first-time crypto posts
According to Bier, X is introducing a new anti-scam policy known as "auto-locking and verification" for any account posting about cryptocurrency for the first time in its history. This move is intended to prevent malicious attackers who hack the accounts of celebrities or influencers from exploiting it for crypto scams.
In the past, hackers have taken over social media accounts of celebrities to suddenly promote scam tokens or engage in sending phishing mail to unsuspecting followers.
With this new feature, when such moves are initiated by the hacker, X will automatically lock the account and demand "identity verification" before the post can proceed. Bier claims that this could remove up to 999% of the economic incentive for malicious actors who employ this scam method.
Beyond celebrity accounts, there is also an increase in the number of new X accounts being created specifically to promote crypto scams. Many users have been tricked into sending money or revealing private wallet information.
However, with this new policy, hackers might be discouraged from taking over existing accounts or creating fake accounts to scam. This is because once the account is auto-locked, without identity verification, it will remain "temporarily locked."
The development could ensure that scam attempts fail immediately after they are attempted, even without the victim initiating any complaints of a compromised account.
X criticizes Google over phishing protection
Bier also took a swipe at Google, stating that this policy became necessary to protect X users since the tech giant was not "doing enough to stop the phishing mails."
He is implying that email providers like Gmail are not taking proactive steps to stop phishing scams, hence, X has decided to add its own protection layer.
The U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) in 2024 also identified "pig butchering" as one of the most prevalent forms of crypto scam. The FBI explained that attackers generally create fake online identities, either by stealing photos or using AI-generated pictures to trick potential victims on social media platforms or dating sites.
Malicious attackers have always posed a threat to crypto users, with different stakeholders evolving different ways to limit their attack frequencies. In December 2025, Binance founder Changpeng Zhao suggested tackling "poisoning scams" through adoption of real-time blacklist queries.
Dan Burgin
U.Today Editorial Team
Vladislav Sopov
