Dean Norris, famous for his role in Breaking Bad, announced that his social media had been hacked to promote a fake cryptocurrency called “DEAN.”
The scam took advantage of his celebrity status and briefly contributed to the coin’s market cap exceeding $8 million.
This is Dean Norris, actually, and that whole crazy crypto sh*t was a complete fake scam. I was hacked, and I don’t know, I just got it back,” the actor clarified in a video post on X. He explained that he had no involvement in the scheme, thanked the platform for restoring his access, and advised users to ignore the fake posts.
Tyler, an X user, reported that hackers spread a false narrative to mislead investors by using a photoshopped image of Norris with a notepad showing “$DEAN” and its launch date. They also shared a manipulated video of Norris seemingly endorsing the token.
The ruse falsely suggested that Norris promoted the DEAN token, leading to a peak market cap of $8.4 million on January 25. After Norris clarified the situation on January 26, the token’s value plummeted 76%, dropping to a market cap of $57,000 and a trading price of $0.0456, with minimal liquidity and reduced trading activity, according to data from DEX Screener.
Norris denied allegations on Reddit regarding his involvement in a scam for profit, pointing out that those accusing him are likely the ones behind pumping the token. He also stated that he doesn’t have a Telegram account and rarely uses his X profile.
Celebrity account hacks are becoming more common, with Dean Norris’s incident highlighting the issue. In December, Drake’s X account was hacked to promote a fraudulent Solana-based meme coin, $ANITA. The hackers took advantage of Drake’s large following and falsely linked the coin to his “Anita Max Wynn Tour” and a partnership with the betting platform Stake, which Drake had previously collaborated with in 2022.
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