A Most Daring Deception: The Perils of Phishing and Open Source Integrity

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Mr. Peter Steinberger, the esteemed progenitor of the open-source AI assistant OpenClaw, has issued a public entreaty to his dear patrons on the 19th of March. He implores them to regard with utmost suspicion any correspondence of a crypto-nature purporting to be affiliated with his noble project. As he hath so eloquently declared upon X, “The project is open source and non-commercial,” and thus, he beseeches his followers to rely solely upon the official website, and to treat with disdain those who dare to drape their commercial wrappers in the guise of virtue.

This latest contretemps marks but another chapter in the protracted struggle between Mr. Steinberger and the crypto-minded interlopers who have, with a persistence most vexing, harassed, impersonated, and sought to exploit his creation since its inception in January. One might say they have pursued him with the tenacity of a foxhound after a rabbit.

Fake Airdrops Target Developers Worldwide

The warning came as numerous developers reported receiving missives of a most dubious nature, promising $5,000 in CLAW tokens in exchange for registering wallets via links that reeked of Google’s suspicious kin. These fraudulent emails, cunningly crafted to appear as GitHub notifications, have a veneer of legitimacy so artfully applied that one might mistake them for the epistles of a gentleman of impeccable breeding.

Screenshots shared on X reveal a campaign so meticulously orchestrated that it would make the most astute of Regency-era schemers blush. The emails, signed by accounts such as “ClawFunding” and “ClawReward,” list “Selected Contributors” with a flourish of exclusivity that would put even the most discerning of drawing-room invitations to shame. Some, translated into Spanish, suggest the perpetrators are as cosmopolitan as they are unscrupulous.

Mr. Aoke Quant, a most astute observer of the digital realm, suspects the villains have scraped GitHub for their quarry, a practice as distasteful as it is effective. Mr. Daniel Sánchez, a developer of no small wit, remarked that unsolicited offers of free money are as trustworthy as a man who promises to marry you for your fortune. He further noted that open-source projects have no more need for crypto giveaways than a lady has need for a second nose.

Months of Harassment and a Disastrous Rebranding

This phishing wave is but the latest in a series of misfortunes that have plagued Mr. Steinberger since the fateful day his creation, Clawdbot, first captured the public’s imagination. The crypto scammers, ever opportunistic, have harassed him with a fervor that would make even the most ardent of suitors seem tame. One particularly egregious instance involved the creation of an unauthorized memecoin on Solana, which promptly crashed 96% in a single day-a performance that would have made even the most jaded of investors weep.

In desperation, Mr. Steinberger was forced to ban all crypto discourse in the project’s Discord server, declaring it “unusable” due to the ceaseless deluge of token hashes and messages. One might say the place had become a madhouse, albeit a rather lucrative one for those with ill intentions.

My dear friends, if you receive crypto-related emails from websites claiming to be associated with OpenClaw, know them to be the work of the most despicable scoundrels.

We would never engage in such base conduct. The project is open source and non-commercial. Trust the official website. Be wary of those who would build commercial wrappers with the gullibility of a babe.
– Peter Steinberger 🦞 (@steipete) March 18, 2026

The situation deteriorated further when Anthropic requested a name change due to trademark concerns. Mr. Steinberger, ever the gentleman, complied, renaming the bot from Clawdbot to Moltbot. Yet, within five seconds of the change, the crypto scammers struck, snatching the original account to promote new tokens with the alacrity of a thief in a crowded market. Malware was served from the hijacked account before Mr. Steinberger could secure the transition, and his GitHub username was stolen in a mere 30 seconds. He described the affair as “the worst form of online harassment” he had ever encountered-a sentiment one can only agree with.

OpenAI Move Fails To Deter Scammers

In February 2026, Mr. Steinberger accepted an invitation from OpenAI to lead its personal AI agents division under the illustrious Sam Altman. He declared the partnership the “fastest way to bring his vision to everyone,” yet it appears the move to a major tech company has done little to dissuade the crypto scammers from their nefarious pursuits. One might say they are as relentless as the rain in a London spring.

Security firm SlowMist had previously warned that Clawdbot instances exposed API keys and private chat logs, a vulnerability that would make even the most fastidious of Regency-era letter-writers shudder. Researcher Jamieson O’Reilly found that unauthenticated instances left hundreds of credentials publicly accessible, a data trove that may have provided the scammers with the means to craft their phishing emails with the precision of a master tailor.

For Mr. Steinberger, the message remains unchanged: there shall never be a coin, and any claim to the contrary is the height of fraudulence. One might say he is as steadfast in his principles as a heroine in a novel of manners, though with a considerably less flattering hairdo.

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2026-03-19 05:31