The $94,900 X account
Paying almost six figures for a used social media account is unlikely to work out well
If you’re looking for a unique and special way to make an utterly terrible financial decision this weekend, you could always buy “Captain Mutant” (@crypt0mutant), a blue-check X account presently on sale for $94,900 at accs-market(.)com. Since X, like most social media platforms, prohibits third-party account sales in its terms of service, purchases of this sort tend to be risky, and the AI-generated “PONZI SCHEME COIN” banner doesn’t exactly inspire confidence either. This account, which has racked up 1.8 million followers, has been renamed, purged of content, and repurposed at least once in its history, potentially indicating an account takeover.
The “Captain Mutant” account is being sold by accs-market(dot)com user “NFT Promoter”, who presently has two other accounts listed as well: “NodeX Solutions” (@nodexsolutions), which has 2.4 million followers and and a blue checkmark, and “Astro Reach” (@AstroReach), with 147K followers. The three accounts are listed for a combined total of $122,599, a hefty price tag for a trio of social media accounts that are likely to be banned after the purchase anyway. It would not be surprising to learn that many of their followers are fake, but unfortunately this is impractical to study due to the removal of the free X/Twitter API.
In recent days and weeks, both the “Captain Mutant” and “NodeX Solutions” accounts have been frequently spamming other users with duplicate replies requesting that the person or organization being replied to make contact via direct message. Despite both accounts having well over a million followers, these replies generally receive almost no views or engagement. The posts being replied to are almost all from cryptocurrency/NFT-themed accounts.
Both “Captain Mutant” and “NodeX Solutions” also post content promoting various obscure cryptocurrency projects somewhat regularly. Most of these posts contain colorful AI-generated images, some of which contain anomalies such as malformed text and a poorly rendered fake tweet. The third for-sale account, “Astro Reach”, reposts the other two accounts’ posts but does not post similar posts of its own.
Some of the more recent cryptocurrency projects promoted by “Captain Mutant” and “NodeX Solutions” have themes related to the recently-inaugurated Trump administration, featuring AI-generated images of Donald Trump and Elon Musk and, in one case, referencing the administration’s controversial mass deportation plans. (These cryptocurrency projects are not the same as the $TRUMP and $MELANIA meme coins promoted by Trump in the days leading up to the inauguration, although they have similar names and themes.)
As it turns out, both the “Captain Mutant” and “NodeX Solutions” accounts have been renamed on at least one occasion. “Captain Mutant” (@crypt0mutant, permanent ID 1210426803308904448) originally bore the handle @ouiIudido and posted primarily in Portuguese. Similarly, “NodeX Solutions” (@nodexsolutions, permanent ID 1359306764752211981) was previously named @eisincera, and likewise posted in Portuguese rather than English. These name changes were accompanied by mass deletions of old posts, but some of their content is archived on Wayback Machine under their previous handles, allowing the permanent IDs to be compared. Interestingly, different accounts have popped up at both of the original handles; it is unclear at this time whether they are related in any way to the accounts presently up for sale.
