The Twitter accounts of major companies and individuals have been compromised in one of the most widespread and confounding hacks the platform has ever seen
On Wednesday afternoon, dozens of high-profile Twitter accounts of major brands and celebrities began sending out tweets asking their followers to send Bitcoin. In return, they promised to send back double the amount to the sender. If this sounds like a scam, it’s because it clearly is, but that hasn’t stopped hundreds of users from sending tens of thousands of dollars worth of cryptocurrency to the scammers behind this massive hack.
Accounts hacked include those belonging to tech billionaires Elon Musk, Jeff Bezos, Bill Gates and Kanye West, in what appear to have been an internal systems compromise at the social media provider.
Apple and ride-sharing giant Uber's official account were also compromised, in what appears to be the most serious attack on Twitter to date.
United States presidential candidate Joe Biden's account was also compromised.
Apple and ride-sharing giant Uber's official account were also compromised, in what appears to be the most serious attack on Twitter to date.
United States presidential candidate Joe Biden's account was also compromised.
Some of the tweets from verified accounts that have since been deleted can be seen below
The hack is the latest breach of high profile Twitter accounts and an evolution of a long-running scam that has persisted on the social network for the last two-and-a-half years. Since at least the start of 2018, scammers have created fake accounts mimicking Musk, President Donald Trump, and other celebrities to lure in unsuspecting individuals to send bitcoin or other forms of cryptocurrency with the promise that they’d have their money doubled or tripled in return.
Twitter finally acknowledged the incident and says that steps are being taken to fix it:
We are aware of a security incident impacting accounts on Twitter. We are investigating and taking steps to fix it. We will update everyone shortly.
— Twitter Support (@TwitterSupport) July 15, 2020
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