An Garda Siochána social media accounts promoting cryptocurrencies after an apparent hack

AN GARDA SÍOCHÁNA’S main accounts on the social media platform X appear to have been hacked and are promoting cryptocurrencies in a significant security breach.

The @gardainfo and @gardatraffic accounts on X (formerly Twitter) have both been affected.

The @gardainfo account is the main X account used by An Garda Síochána and has hundreds of thousands of followers. The @gardatraffic account is used for road safety updates and has over 600,000 followers. 

The feeds of both accounts are full of hundreds of posts advertising a cryptocurrency wallet application. 

Users on X began reporting that the @gardainfo account appeared to have been hacked shortly after 11pm on Wednesday night. 

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The handle on that account has since changed to @XummHelpx. 

The @gardatraffic account still has its original handle at the time of reporting. 

Each one of the posts tags a different X user and invites them to claim an “allocation” of XRP, a type of cryptocurrency coin. 

Fraudulent cryptocurrency promotions are often used by scammers. 

Both accounts now purport to be located in the Netherlands. 

An Garda Síochána has been contacted for comment.