Twitter Bitcoin Scam

[Starmill]

In the past hour, scores of tweets from high-profile accounts, including Bill Gates, Elon Musk and Joe Biden have tweeted scams asking for bitcoin payments, taking potentially tens of thousands of dollars in payment in minutes:

High-profile Twitter accounts simultaneously hacked to spread crypto scam

The scammers have raised $20,000 — and rising — in less than an hour.

techcrunch.com

Many high-profile Twitter accounts simultaneously hacked to spread cryptocurrency scam
Zack Whittaker@zackwhittaker / 9:34 pm BST•July 15, 2020

Image Credits: Dan Kitwood (opens in a new window)/ Getty Images
A number of high-profile Twitter accounts were simultaneously hacked on Wednesday by attackers who used the accounts — some with millions of followers — to spread a cryptocurrency scam.
@bitcoin, @ripple, @coindesk, @coinbase and @binance were among the accounts hacked with the same message: “We have partnered with CryptoForHealth and are giving back 5000 BTC to the community,” followed by a link to a website, which we are not linking to.

 

[BJames]

Crikey. BBC's report says this:

"Everyone is asking me to give back, and now is the time," a tweet from Mr Gates's account said. "You send $1,000, I send you back $2,000."

Major US Twitter accounts hacked in Bitcoin scam

Twitter says a hacking attack on employees was to blame for one of its biggest ever security lapses.

www.bbc.co.uk

I bet a lot of people fell for it too. Quite unusual for multiple incredibly high-profile accounts to all be hacked at the same time.

 

[Crossover]

A colleague mentioned what seemed a valid point - aside from falling for the scam the people who did also had to know how to deal with Bitcoin - I’m a techie but have no idea about dealing with such cryptocurrency

That said, it is also said that scammers put their own money into these things to make them look more enticing and legitimate, so I suppose it’ll never be known how much was made from the ‘innocent’

 

[RJ]

A lot of people use their smarts for nefarious purposes.

If anyone did fall for it, it's hard to feel sorry for them. Anyone old enough to be dealing with Bitcoin wallets and dabbling in crypto should be wise enough to know that there's no easy way to make money like that.

There is very easy, legal money to be made with crypto but requires investment in knowledge and setting up the right things in order to get to that point.