Home Breaking Bad’s Norris hacked to plug $8m crypto scam

Breaking Bad’s Norris hacked to plug $8m crypto scam

Breaking Bad star Dean Norris has confirmed his X account was hacked as part of an elaborate $8 million ‘pump and dump’ crypto scam. 

His social media platform was manipulated on Saturday (Jan. 25) to plug a meme coin known as DEAN, created using his image. 

Norris is best known for his role as DEA agent Hank Schrader in the smash-hit American crime drama, series Breaking Bad. 

Rogue actors uploaded a fake photoshopped image depicting Norris holding a notepad showing $DEAN and the launch date, which led people to believe the actor had launched a personalized meme coin. 

The elaborate scam reached new heights when the X account responded to comments asking for proof that the ‘launch’ was for real. 

A five-second video was posted with Norris appearing on screen making the following comment: 

“Hey it’s me Dean, and uh… January 25th, I’m declaring it’s real.”

Game on. That was the case for the scammers, with plenty of people falling victim to the hoax. 

The alarm was raised by the man in question when he posted a fresh video to X, to confirm his legitimate appearance and that the previous video was part of the scam conducted by threat actors.

“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,” he said, adding his thanks to the platform for restoring access to his account.

Norris told viewers to ignore the previous content, but by then it was too late.

In recent weeks, teams representing President Donald Trump and First Lady, Melania Trump have jumped on the meme coin bandwagon.

Online claims said the actor was lying about his involvement

Data from DEX Screener showed the DEAN token had spiked to a market cap as high as $8.4 million on Saturday, with the real Norris video contributing to a significant drop in the market cap to its current level of $57,000.

DEAN has slumped by 76% in the last 24 hours of trading, with its volume at $263,000 and its liquidity at $46,000. 

Norris also hit out at speculators on Reddit who claimed he was behind the infamous crypto launch. 

He was accused of lying about his involvement, that he used the crypto process as a ‘pump and dump’ for sheer profit. 

“I clicked on a couple accounts accusing me of lying and looks like THEY were the people pumping it up!!,” stated Norris.

The actor confirmed that he does not have a Telegram account and that he rarely uses his X account, other than his required intervention over the DEAN crypto scam.

 

Image credit: Via Midjourney

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The ReadWrite Editorial policy involves closely monitoring the tech, gambling and blockchain industries for major developments, new product and brand launches, AI breakthroughs, game releases and other newsworthy events. Editors assign relevant stories to in-house staff writers with expertise in each particular topic area. Before publication, articles go through a rigorous round of editing for accuracy, clarity, and to ensure adherence to ReadWrite's style guidelines.

Graeme Hanna
Tech Journalist

Graeme Hanna is a full-time, freelance writer with significant experience in online news as well as content writing. Since January 2021, he has contributed as a football and news writer for several mainstream UK titles including The Glasgow Times, Rangers Review, Manchester Evening News, MyLondon, Give Me Sport, and the Belfast News Letter. Graeme has worked across several briefs including news and feature writing in addition to other significant work experience in professional services. Now a contributing news writer at ReadWrite.com, he is involved with pitching relevant content for publication as well as writing engaging tech news stories.

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