Suspected Bitcoin scammers take over Twitter accounts of Bill Gates, Joe Biden, Jeff Bezos, and Elon Musk

WHAT YOU NEED TO KNOW:

• Assumed Bitcoin scammers compromised twitter accounts of high-profile people and companies.
• The tweet, sent from the accounts of famous people, said it would double the bitcoin investment of those who use the link provided.
• The tweet scams were started to be seen on Twitter at 3 p.m. Eastern time, and the post was gone in two hours.

On Wednesday, Twitter accounts of high profile people, including Joe Biden, Jeff Bezos, Barack Obama, and Elon Musk, and many other famous people and companies became victims of most seen cyber hacks in the history of the modern internet.

A typical type of tweet by hackers was sent from Bill Gates’ account and told users that he would double all returns directed to his Bitcoin account in succeeding 30 minutes, specifying that if someone sends $1,000,  he will send back $2,000.

Gates is the multi-billionaire co-founder of Microsoft and the second wealthiest man in the world.

The same kinds of tweets also came upon the pages of rap artist Kanye West, tech mogul Elon Musk, and companies such as Uber, Apple, and money transfer platform, Cash.

Some Twitter users believed and conformed with the call, as reported by Bitcoin through its public register. According to reports, the Bitcoin link provided in the tweets were immediately flooded with over 200 transactions, which amounted to o $100,000.

Other observers on Twitter lambasted the post, telling the users that the invitation was a scam. The tweet was taken down after a few minutes.

Most of the accounts affected have a significant Twitter following, with Gates having 51.1, Apple with 4.5, and Musk with 36.9 million.

Reports said the tweets started making rounds on Twitter around 3 p.m. Eastern time, and the material was gone after two hours.

Aly Pavela, a spokesperson for Twitter, said the social network is already probing the issue, and they would update the community at a later time.

Brothers Cameron and Tyler Winklevoss, cryptocurrency investors, tweeted that all essential Twitter handles in the industry had been affected by the scam investment partnership.

Source: AOL