Microsoft's own X account spent part of Thursday selling a fake coin

For a while on Thursday, the account that announces Windows releases to 13 million followers was promoting a cryptocurrency called $Clippy.

Someone got into Microsoft's official X account. They changed the profile picture to Clippy, the paperclip assistant Office retired two decades ago, then followed and reposted an account called @clippymsftcto that was pretending to be a Microsoft executive and claiming the $Clippy token had a liquidity pool paired directly with $MSFT. None of that is a thing. About half an hour in, an apology appeared on the account and was then quietly deleted. Microsoft later confirmed unauthorised access, removed the posts, secured the account and said it is still investigating the circumstances. A second account, @ClippyMSFT, was still pushing the token afterwards.

This is a pump and dump, and the verified badge is the whole product. Enough people buy during the twenty minutes the post is live to lift the price, and whoever is sitting on the supply sells into them. The US Securities and Exchange Commission's X account got the same treatment in 2024 through a SIM swap. Microsoft says it has never endorsed, sponsored or authorised any token and will pursue legal action over the use of its brand.

Keep one blunt rule: a company account telling you to buy a coin is either hacked or lying, and the difference does not help you. The same urgency you have learned to distrust in email deserves no more credit on social media. Ordinary accounts get taken over the same way these ones do, so if you are not sure what is protecting yours, Tendvane's privacy and accounts check will show you how the sign-ins on your PC are secured and where a password is still doing all the work.