CLAWing Back: Devs Get a Rug-Pull 'Airdrop' Straight to Their Inboxes

Open-source devs on GitHub are getting a special kind of "airdrop" they never signed up for. Instead of free tokens, they're getting their wallets professionally drained by a phishing campaign that's as convincing as a fake Rolex.

Tel Aviv's OX Security spotted the grift, where attackers spun up fake GitHub profiles to play Santa. They'd tag developers in threads, promising a juicy $5,000 worth of CLAW tokens—because nothing says "legit reward" like an unsolicited DM from a stranger on the internet.

The link leads to a website that's a carbon copy of the real OpenClaw page, with one crucial, wallet-emptying upgrade: a "Connect Wallet" button. Clicking it is like handing a burglar your keys and your safe combination, allowing malicious scripts to clean you out.

The phishing site graciously supports all your favorite self-custody tools—MetaMask, WalletConnect, Trust Wallet—ensuring no degen is left behind in this inclusive scam. It's a classic crypto one-two punch: social engineering disguised as free money, because why hack a wallet when you can just ask for permission?

By specifically targeting GitHub users who've touched OpenClaw code, the scammers added a layer of credibility thinner than a memecoin's utility, but apparently it's enough to hook the curious.

OpenClaw, an open-source AI framework, has become a magnet for crypto grifters, much to its founder's despair. Peter Steinberger recently mused about nuking the entire codebase over crypto drama, noting, "I didn't know that they're not just good at harassment, they are also really good at using scripts and tools." A true backhanded compliment to the scammers' operational efficiency.

This followed a total ban on even uttering "crypto" in the project's Discord. The trigger? Scammers in January resurrected old OpenClaw accounts to shill a fake CLAWD token that rugged after a brief, hilarious $16 million market cap party, which Steinberger had to publicly crash.