Scammers collect over $100,000 in Bitcoin during elaborate hack of high-profile Twitter accounts
Unidentified hackers have stolen more than $100,000 of Bitcoin during an elaborate Twitter hack that compromised the accounts of several of the largest tech companies in the world, including Apple, Uber, and Cash App.
The Wednesday scam, which instructed users to send the cryptocurrency to a Bitcoin address and receive double in return, first only affected popular cryptocurrency accounts such as exchange Coinbase and news outlet Coindesk. However, it has since been seen on the pages of personal accounts for rapper Kanye West, Amazon founder Jeff Bezos, Microsoft founder Bill Gates, tech executive Elon Musk, and others.
"I am giving back to my fans," read the scam tweet. "All Bitcoin sent to my address below will be sent back doubled. I am only doing a maximum of $10,000,000. (Address redacted) Only going on for 30 minutes!"
Blog MalwareTech was one of the first outlets to report on the hack and included a picture of many top cryptocurrency accounts that were hacked. The blog said it was "hearing a lot of unconfirmed rumors a Twitter employee with access to the user management panel was hacked."
A bunch of high profile cryptocurrency Twitter accounts have been hijacked to tweet bitcoin scams. Likely a 3rd party App compromise rather that Twitter itself. Wallet has received ~$6000. pic.twitter.com/D8MiXrz9ml
— MalwareTech (@MalwareTechBlog) July 15, 2020
Although Twitter attempted to delete the tweets, the widespread number of accounts that posted the link has already netted the hackers more than 11 Bitcoins, which are currently valued at more than $9,000 apiece.
A representative for Twitter said the company is "looking into this."
https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/news/scammers-collect-around-100-000-in-bitcoin-during-elaborate-hack-of-high-profile-twitter-accounts