Hackers Hijack Elon Musk’s Twitter

Hackers have struck again on Twitter – this time affecting Elon Musk, CEO & Co-Founder of Tesla. Free Bitcoin and Ethereum was promised to his 22.5 followers. This is the second time the business mogul’s account has been attacked. A fake verified Musk account was acting as the real businessman. Can you imagine reading philosophical tweets to then see offers of free cryptocurrencies and tips? According to ccn.com, the fake Musk built on real Musk’s promise to “take [Tesla], private,” stating that the planned reorganization will see the addition of Bitcoin and Ethereum payment methods as “one of the steps in moving forward.”

Some users fell for the fakery and began to accuse Musk of stealing from people, while others questioned how a fake account was able to show it was verified. This news doesn’t pose well for Twitter as they have been plagued with news of fraudulent account practices. Other accounts that have been hacked with impersonators are Ethereum co-founder, Vitalik Buterin and cybersecurity expert John McAfee – all with a Twitter-verified status.

The last time this happened to Musk was in February of this year announcing it was giving out 400 ETH to fans.

Twitter later assured its users with better defense frameworks to safeguard profiles. Excerpt from its statement on The Verge:

“We’re aware of this form of manipulation and are proactively implementing a number of signals to prevent these types of accounts from engaging with others in a deceptive manner.”

And yet, many fake profiles remain, proving it an arduous task to govern.

“Free Cryptocurrency” scams are on the rise on Twitter with hundreds of fake accounts stating promises to victims. Scammers can make up to tens of thousands of dollars a day. Some account holders have also resorted to stating they do not offer free cryptocurrencies.