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High-profile U.S. Twitter accounts hacked to spread cryptocurrency scam
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A number of high-profile Twitter accounts were simultaneously hacked on Wednesday by attackers to spread a cryptocurrency scam.
The false messages encouraged users to post their cryptocurrency funds to a particular address under the guise that their “investment” will be doubled.
Billionaire Bill Gates is among the prominent U.S. figures targeted by the hackers.
“We can confirm that this tweet was not sent by Bill Gates. This appears to be part of a larger issue that Twitter is facing. Twitter is aware and working to restore the account,” a spokesperson for the billionaire said in a statement.
Twitter responded to the incident in the afternoon. “We are aware of a security incident impacting accounts on Twitter. We are investigating and taking steps to fix it. We will update everyone shortly,” Twitter Support said in a tweet, adding that users may be unable to tweet or reset passwords while they review and address the incident.
The scammer’s website was quickly pulled offline.
Kristaps Ronka, chief executive of Namesilo, the domain registrar used by the scammers, told U.S. tech news website Tech Crunch that the company suspended the domain “on the first report” it received.