Bitcoin scam ravages Twitter as Elon Musk & Joe Biden hacked

The likes of Elon Musk, Bill Gates, Joe Biden and Kanye West have had their Twitter accounts hacked in one of the most notorious online Bitcoin scams of all time.

Hackers took control of accounts with millions of followers before sending a tweet asking for people to send Bitcoin on the premise that they would send back double.

Scams like this have been rife on Twitter since the 2017 bull run, with Elon Musk going so far as addressing the giveaway bots in 2018.

So far one of the addresses associated with the hack has received more than $115,000, although it’s worth noting that multiple addresses have been used and that after just a few hours the figure is estimated to be around $250,000.

Gemini CEO Tyler Winklevoss confirmed that his account had been compromised, however what’s intriguing is that he revealed he had two-factor authentication enabled, which suggests that the hack effected Twitter at a root level.

Other cryptocurrency exchanges and influencers also suffered at the hands of the hackers with Binance and Bitfinex both having tweets published about a Bitcoin scam.

At the time of writing more and more global figures are falling victim to the breach with reality TV star Kim Kardashian tweeting out: “Feeling nice! All BTC sent to my will be sent back doubled, enjoy,” alongside a Bitcoin wallet address.

Twitter’s official support page provided an update at 22:45 BST, stating: “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.”

It continued: “You may be unable to Tweet or reset your password while we review and address this incident.”

Concerns have also been raised about the security of the social media platform as a whole, with some suggesting entire direct message logs could be leaked, and subsequently sold on the dark net.

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