Twitter Hackers Reap Windfall After Hitting World Figures

By Ayodele Oluwafemi

Hackers, on Wednesday evening, went on the loose after some of the world’s biggest names as verified Twitter handles belonging to Joe Biden, Bill Gates, Elon Musk, Kanye West, Jeff Bezos, Michael Bloomberg, Uber, Apple and other prominent handles were hacked to unleash a crypto currency scam.

The hackers took over the verified handles of prominent people to solicit for donations via bitcoins, with the promise that the Bitcoins will be doubled and sent back to the donors.

“Everyone is asking me to give back, and now is the time, I am doubling all payment sent to BTC address for the next 30 minutes. You send $1,000, I send you back $2,000BTC Address – BC_____________ Only going on for 30 minutes enjoy,” Gates tweeted.

Similar tweets demanding for bitcoins donations were tweeted on verified prominent handles of Barack Obama, Kanye West, Kim Kardashian West, Warren Buffett, Jeff Bezos and Mike Bloomberg, Elon Musk and others

The tweets were subsequently deleted after 30minutes, however, many bitcoins users fell for the scam, as $100,000 worth of Bitcoins were received by the Bitcoins address published on the tweet, CNN wrote.

Minutes later, Twitter support tweeted, “we are aware of a security incident impacting accounts on Twitter. We are investigating and taking steps to do it. We will update everyone shortly.”

Amid  the controversy that trailed the hack, the social media company barred the accounts of verified handles from tweeting, however, non-verified handles were allowed to tweet.

Twitter said it was investigating the breach and other compromised accounts, while promising to release more statements on the incident.

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