Sputnik news agency and radio 20:36 GMT 15.07.2020
A massive bitcoin scam rocked Twitter on Wednesday, affecting blue-ticked accounts of big companies and political and cultural personalities, including those of Elon Musk, Bill Gates, Kanye West, Joe Biden, Apple, Uber and many more.
An unprecedented hacker attack has affected Twitter, which, starting with the accounts of Elon Musk and Bill Gates, targeted a large number of verified accounts. Tweets with bitcoin scam texts appeared on hacked pages, urging users to send money to the address "bc1qxy2kgdygjrsqtzq2n0yrf2493p83kkfjhx0wlh".
The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) said in a statement that it is aware of the hacker attack affecting high-profile twitter accounts and urged the public not to fall victim to the cryptocurrency scam.
"We are aware of today's security incident involving several Twitter accounts belonging to high profile individuals," the statement from the FBI's San Francisco field office said, quoted by ABC on Wednesday. "The accounts appear to have been compromised in order to perpetuate cryptocurrency fraud. We advise the public not to fall victim to this scam by sending cryptocurrency or money in relation to this incident."
Twitter announced that, as the investigation into the incident is ongoing, users might be unable to tweet or reset their passwords. As of now, when verified accounts try to tweet, they get the following message:
"This request looks like it might be automated. To protect our users from spam and other malicious activity, we can’t complete this action right now. Please try again later".
Twitter has reportedly blocked the scam bitcoin address and will not allow users to post to it.
The alleged scam address, "bc1qwr30ddc04zqp878c0evdrqfx564mmf0dy2w39l", was first posted in the account of Kim Kardashian, when it appeared to have been hacked.
Feeling nice! All BTC sent to my will be sent back doubled, enjoy.
bc1qwr30ddc04zqp878c0evdrqfx564mmf0dy2w39l
— Kim Kardashian West (@KimKardashian) July 15, 2020
According to transaction data, scammers managed to get at least $113,000.
Earlier, Twitter Support announced that it was aware of the attack, and said that an investigation into the matter is ongoing and steps are being taken to fix the situation.
"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", the company tweeted.
Among those attacked were the Twitter pages of companies, politicians and artists, as well as thousands of ordinary Twitter users.
The top-list of those affected by the attack includes Barack Obama, Joe Biden, Mike Bloomberg, Kim Kardashian, Kanye West, Apple, Elon Musk, Bill Gates, Uber, Jeff Bezos and many others. Some users shared screenshots allegedly showing that Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu's account was also hacked.
Israel's PM Benjamin Netanyahu hacked pic.twitter.com/HwwmIiGlhp
— Alpha - Si vis pacem, para bellum (@theAlphaIntel) July 15, 2020
Former US President Barack Obama's account also became the victim of the massive hacker attack.
The account of Joe Biden was hijacked, along with the accounts of Warren Buffet and Mike Bloomberg, affected by the attack. Responding to the hacking, Biden's campaign announced that the account was "locked down" immediately after the scam tweet appeared.
“Twitter locked down the account immediately following the breach and removed the related tweet. We remain in touch with Twitter on the matter", the campaign said.
The Twitter accounts of Apple and Kanye West were hacked after those of Bill Gates and Elon Musk.
"We are giving back to our community. We support Bitcoin and we believe you should too! All Bitcoin sent to our address below will be sent back to you doubled! bc1qxy2kgdygjrsqtzq2n0yrf2493p83kkfjhx0wlh...[] Only going on for the next 30 minutes", Apple's Twitter account read.
West's tweet said that he would "only be doing a maximum of $10,000,000" in the giveaway.
"I am giving back to my fans. All Bitcoin sent to my address below will be doubled. I am only doing a maximum of $10,000,000", Kanye West's tweet said.
Earlier, the scam had tech billionaire Elon Musk announcing via Twitter that he "felt greatful [sic]" and pledged to double all payments sent to "his BTC address", noting that he was "only doing this for the next 30 minutes".
"Feeling greatful, doubling all payments sent to my BTC address! You send $1,000, I send back $2,000! Only doing this for the next 30 minutes", the now deleted tweet read, supplied with a BTC address "bc1qxy2kgdygjrsqtzq2n0yrf2493p83kkfjhx0wlh".
The account of Joe Biden was hijacked, along with the accounts of Warren Buffet and Mike Bloomberg, affected by the attack. Responding to the hacking, Biden's campaign announced that the account was "locked down" immediately after the scam tweet appeared.
Some users expressed worry on the possible impact of the hacker attack on the world leader's accounts.
Twitter spokeswoman Aly Pavela said the company was looking into the issue and would have more to say later, cited by NBC News.
Due to the attack that spanned multiple verified accounts, Twitter shares plummeted, according to trading data shared in social media.
In the first hour of the series of attacks, social media users noted that at least 5,314 people have fallen for the scam.
