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Patrick Bewley’s X feed was usually filled with posts about leather three ways and clips from the pool Erotica.
Gay OnlyFans The star, known as Daddy Patrick, decided to venture into the adult industry at the age of 60, and in less than two years, his number of followers on X had swelled to 132,000. But in April, his feed suddenly became very political– and very MAGA – with posts like “President Trump “He stunned the world when he announced that America had more oil than the next two largest oil economies combined.”
Except that Pioli was not behind the change. His account has been hacked.
Bewley is one of several gay OnlyFans creators WIRED spoke to who have been targeted by the recent cryptocurrency scam on X, in which attackers attempt to extort money from creators to get their accounts back. In some cases, when they refused to cooperate, their accounts were filled with posts about cryptocurrencies, or MAGA propaganda, as with Bewley.
On April 9, Bewley received a direct message on The letter, which asked Bewley to nominate Mark for an award, seemed innocuous because it “seemed like something he would do,” he says. The link Mark sent redirected Bewley to an X page asking for his login information “but nothing was taken, or so I thought.” Pioli went about his day and then, after Mark informed him he hadn’t sent a direct message about the award nomination, he went to check his page and it was gone.
By tricking Bewley into clicking on the fake link, the attacker was able to change the name, phone number and email on Bewley’s account. The handle was first changed to @DADDYPATRIOzvu, and a day later, on April 10, to @Fatherokdwcjo63.
Bewley’s partner immediately reported the hack to X from his personal account, saying it had been stolen. Then a strange thing happened: The account went into “crazy MAGA mode,” Pioli says. The banner and avatar were changed to a menacing black-and-white image of Steve Bannon. WarRoom.org, the official website of his political podcast, was announced with linktree for different Bannon platformsincluding TikTok, Telegram, merchandise store and official website.
On April 16, a week after the initial attack, the hijacker of Bewley’s account posted a photo on Donald Trump’s hacked X account, with an overlay of text that read “Good morning, I’m still your boss.” Under the post, Pioli’s partner, Jerry Burt, asked how to recover the account. “Just pay for it. That’s all,” the account hijacker wrote in a series of screenshots reviewed by WIRED. “Do you want this account or not? This is no joke, man.”
Asking price? $2000 in GAT Crypto.
When Pioli refused to pay, the attacker sent a letter to his employer, Ducati Studios Network, a gay porn production company where he recently joined as marketing director, demanding $3,000 in cryptocurrency.
Pioli’s partner stopped being involved after nearly two weeks of back and forth. Burt says the account “then began force-feeding pro-MAGA propaganda, reposting 20 to 30 posts a day from extremist Republican pages like @MAGAVoicewho describes himself as “a proud patriot. Professional.” Elon MuskAn account that wants to “take back our country.”
Losing the account was a huge blow to the Bewley brand. A high follower count, especially on X, gives the perception that you are a player in the adult industry. “In a way, this is what determines who will want to work with you,” Bewley tells WIRED. “It’s the only platform where people look at it as a measure of your standing, almost like a rating. Everyone wants to work with you if you have more than 100,000 followers. You have automatic credibility.” WIRED contacted an account that appeared to be linked to the Bewley hack, but did not receive a response.
