Breaking Bad star Dean Norris’ X account hacked for a meme coin scam

  cryptopolitan.com 10 h

Breaking Bad star who played Hank Schrader, Dean Norris, X account was hacked so hackers could pull a scam for a meme coin named DEAN.

The attack began with a tweet from Dean Norris’s official account announcing the fake token and the associated contract address. It said, “I have decided to launch my own crypto coin named Dean,” along with the contract address.

Following the hours, Dean Norris revealed the meme coin “was a complete fake scam” and his account was hacked. He also asked the users to “just ignore” the token.

pic.twitter.com/J646HHfPiq

— Dean Norris (@deanjnorris) January 26, 2025

Norris also admitted the delay in his announcement. He said he doesn’t spend his “life on Twitter like these other folks” and rarely uses it. He wasn’t even aware that his account was hacked before he “started getting texts from friends saying it’s out there,” which informed him about the breach.

The hackers even circulated a fake picture of Norris holding up a note listing the specifics of his new cryptocurrency, which made the users believe that this time, it was legit.

Users were baited through Norris’ fake Telegram group

Another video of Dean Norris promoting his Telegram channel is circulating on X. A user named @CryptoGalHannah shared, “I lost a lot of money on it! How did the hacker get videos of you talking about the coin, the Telegram, and all that stuff?”

It turns out that the hacker paid Norris for a Cameo video. Cameo is a platform where users can connect with celebrities and request a video with details about what they want that particular celebrity to say.

Users say that Norris should have been careful about talking about the “DeanNorrisofficial” channel, which made him an easy target for the scam. He confirmed that he does not have a Telegram group in his X post, saying, “I don’t have a Telegram account. FFS.”

Celebrity meme coin scams are becoming a norm

It is becoming increasingly difficult for the general public to differentiate authentic celebrity endorsements from fraudulent promotions in the crypto space.

Scammers commonly run “pump-and-dump” schemes, which promote token prices through fraudulent marketing before they sell at the high to make investors lose their investments.

Olympic star Caitlyn Jenner also faces a legal case from investors for the same reason. The investors who sued Jenner allege her deceptive marketing activities presented the JENNER token as an unregistered security with insufficient disclosure to potential customers.

JENNER’s value declined by $7.5 million, transforming into only $170,000 before Californian court officials accepted a class-action lawsuit.

Moreover, last July, Lionel Messi’s Instagram post about the WATER meme coin on the Solana blockchain was without any explanation. The Instagram page for WATER released another announcement with Ronaldinho hours after Messi’s initial endorsement.

WATER surpassed its previous price target by a remarkable 55% following Messi’s Instagram post yet lost half of its newfound gains. The crypto community remains unsure about the authenticity of these endorsements because neither Messi nor Ronaldinho have publicly confirmed their participation.

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