Once in a blue moon, a celebrity will have their Twitter account hacked and, as a result, a string of weird posts will be sent out, making it quite obvious the account has been hacked. Today, however, was a much different case, as a number of celebrity accounts were hacked as part of what seemed to be a bitcoin scam.
Accounts owned by Kanye West, Wiz Khalifa, former President Barack Obama, former Vice President/presidential nominee Joe Biden, billionaires Bill Gates, Jeff Bezos, and Elon Musk, and more were among those hacked. Company accounts for Apple, Uber, and Cash App were also among the victims.
These accounts broadcasted a message, that read, “I am giving back to my community due to Covid-19!” It then asked users to send money to their Bitcoin account for it to be sent back, with a bonus. “All bitcoin sent to my address below will be sent back doubled. If you send $1,000, I will send back $2,000!”
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
Twitter sent out a tweet letting their followers know they are aware of the scam and are “investigating and taking steps to fix it.” According to Business Insider, Bitcoin transactions revealed that the listed account in the tweets from the hacked accounts received more than 11 Bitcoin, which equates to about $101,300. It should be noted that is unknown if some or any of the transactions were executed by the scammers in order to add legitimacy to their account.
View the affected accounts and their tweets below.
Wiz Khalifa is a Warner Music artist. Uproxx is an independent subsidiary of Warner Music Group.
[via Business Insider]