Bewildered, I rifled through my messages, emails, and social media accounts. The situation quickly became clear: Somebody had gained access to my X account and used it to promote a fraudulent WIRED-branded crypto coin. As people purchased the coin and the price began to rise, the scammer sold their stash, wiping out investors. The people who lost money were pissed.

On X, I discovered a barrage of colorful abuse directed at my account, including a variety of racial slurs lobbed by individuals with a limited grasp of world geography. “I’m surprised people don’t come to your work and smash you up maggot,” one X user wrote. “You long nose, thin pussy lips lip having ass bitch,” another person called me. “I hope a car crashes n2 [sic] you,” said somebody else.

Other users tried to report my supposed misconduct to my employer: “Your man out here stealing money [sic],” one person wrote on X, tagging the main WIRED account.

Though unpleasant, few of the messages were directly menacing, with the exception of those from the anonymous Telegram user. “im [sic] scraping extensive information on you, including your address, relatives, friends from [my alma mater] UCL and more,” they said. “I will make sure your life is hell if i dont [sic] receive my refund.”

By 9 am, I was still taking refuge in bed, my laptop resting on outstretched legs. I contacted my editor, managers, and security personnel at WIRED to explain what had happened—and to ask for help. I messaged my partner too. She responded, “Oh fuuuuuck!!!”

Commonly described as either rug pulls or pump-and-dumps, crypto investment scams of this sort take place all the time. I just never imagined that I might become ensnared in one myself.

“This is a very common attack. The purpose is to do a simple pump-and-dump—to get the cash out,” says Phil Larratt, director of investigations at Chainalysis, a blockchain analytics company that helped WIRED to analyze the mechanics of the scam. “To do that, they have to have some visibility; that’s why they hacked your account.”

This year alone, the X accounts of various public figures have been compromised in aid of crypto pump-and-dump schemes. Profiles belonging to a BBC journalist, politicians from the UK and Argentina, and a former vice president of the Philippines have all been used to promote fraudulent coins. Previously, accounts belonging to Joe Biden, Barack Obama, Bill Gates and Kanye West have all been hijacked for similar crypto-flavored scams.