Several verified Twitter accounts have been hacked to impersonate Elon Musk today, Nov. 5, with one reportedly collecting almost $170,000.
After compromising verified accounts, scammers changed the profile name and picture in order to pose as the Tesla CEO. Scammers would then post in comment threads started by the real Elon Musk, so as to give the impression of legitimacy.
Some of the scam tweets said that Elon Musk was conducting "The biggest" crypto-giveaway in the world for those who use "Bitcoic", and provided a link to "Participate" in the giveaway.
To skirt Twitter security measures, scammers subtly changed one of the characters in the name, while still maintaining a display name that appeared to be "Elon Musk" at a glance, preculding Twitter from automatically flagging the account.
Hackers reportedly compromised several different accounts, including those of film production firm Pathe U.K. and U.S. politician Frank Pallone Jr.Daily Beast reporter Lachlan Markay reported that sources on Pallone's campaign confirmed the account was hacked, albeit without any political goals saying, "Just looks like a Bitcoin Scam.".
A source close to Lachlan Markay November 5, 2018 He subsequently added that one of the BTC wallets used in the scams received $158,256 and that the payments "Are still coming." At press time, the address referred to by Markay had a final balance of 26.38 BTC.Pathe U.K. later confirmed that it had recovered control of its account and deleted the fake Elon Musk tweets.
Durov's tweet drew attention to fake crypto giveaway scammers who posed as the Telegram CEO and claimed to offer crypto to users as a "Thank you for [their] support."
In September, Elon Musk asked Jackson Palmer, the creator of Dogecoin, to help him combat "Annoying" cryptocurrency scammers on Twitter.
Palmer replied almost immediately, urging Musk to reach out to him using direct messages.
Later on, the creator of Dogecoin sent Musk a script that could purportedly solve the problem.
Fake Elon Musk Accounts on Twitter Promote Bitcoin Scams, One Collects $170K
Published on Nov 5, 2018
by Cointele | Published on Coinage
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