American heavy metal band Metallica, which boasts 121 million album sales across 11 records, has fallen victim to cryptocurrency scammers.
The official X account of the legendary band was recently compromised by bad actors in order to promote a fake Solana-based meme coin with the METAL ticker.
The fraudulent cryptocurrency was being promoted as a "dynamic new token" that was supposedly launched in collaboration with American ticket sales and distribution company Ticketmaster.
The compromise account went on to announce that the token would be used for purchasing merchandise and gifts at Metallica events and online.
Alex DovbnyaMoreover, it also introduced a staking feature for the token that was supposed to allow Metallica fans to earn rewards.
This is not the first time that the legendary band has fallen victim to crypto fraudsters. As reported by U.Today, Metallica was compelled to issue a statement to deny that it was involved in fraudulent giveaways of Bitcoin and Ethereum. The band became the target of crypto fraudsters following the release of their much-anticipated album called “72 Seasons,” which was the band's first full-length release in six years. A fake livestream promoting the bogus giveaway popped up on YouTube back then.
Following the launch of several celebrity meme coins, scammers are now trying to capitalize on the latest cryptocurrency trend. The social media account of American rapper 50 Cent was also recently hacked to promote a fake Solana token.
Arman Shirinyan
Vladislav Sopov
Dan Burgin
U.Today Editorial Team