On one of the busiest days of Jeff Passan’s career, a day in which the MLB Lockout was lifted, the ESPN reporter lost access to his Twitter account.
The 20-year sportswriter had his Twitter account hacked yesterday, at approximately noon Eastern time. The account was hacked by an unknown entity, who completely renamed and changed Passan’s Twitter name, banner, bio, links, and more, in order to promote NFT scams.
Passan’s account was renamed to “Jeff.eth (Jeff Passan)” and his bio was changed to read “NFT Enthusiast, MLB Insider, Father, Husband”. The profile picture was changed to a “Skulltoons” icon, apparently prominent within the NFT community. A link to a suspicious NFT scam website relating to the icon was also inserted onto his page.
The worst possible day to have Jeff Passan hacked. We all lose. pic.twitter.com/thBUzNKCkz
— Bleacher Nation (@BleacherNation) March 10, 2022
On a day where the Major League Baseball lockout was mere hours from being lifted, a topic which Passan actively covered from day one, this was not an ideal time to be hacked. If news broke during the hack, Passan would have been unable to report on it.
Passan regained access to his account about a half-hour later, when the changes were undone – though Passan did change his Twitter banner to a plain white background with text reading “I’m Back. –30” and his bio was completely removed.
hey remember that time i got hacked on the biggest news day of my life
— Jeff Passan (@JeffPassan) March 10, 2022
also got some sweet nfts if anyones interested
— Jeff Passan (@JeffPassan) March 10, 2022
Strangely, the hacker failed to cash in on his opportunity to tweet fake news relating to the lockout, but it’s better off that this did not occur, as his 821,000 followers would have been fooled.
In typical Jeff Passan fashion, the hack was acknowledged by him in some humorous tweets (above) and his aforementioned Twitter banner. Passan’s ability to shine in moments such as these proves why he is one of the sports world’s greats.
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