Kanye West and Elon Musk among Twitter accounts 'hacked' as part of Bitcoin scam
Video report by ITV News Reporter Faye Barker
High-profile Twitter accounts, including those of Barack Obama, Elon Musk and Kanye West, have been hacked as part of a widespread cryptocurrency scam.
The accounts, which have large Twitter followings, were simultaneously hacked on Wednesday evening and a message posted encouraging users to send £797 ($1,000) to a Bitcoin address.
Billionaires Bill Gates, and Jeff Bezos were also among some of the high-profile celebrities whose Twitter accounts were seemingly hacked to promote a Bitcoin scam.
Apple and Uber also appeared to have their accounts hacked, with the accounts each amplifying the message to their tens of millions of respective followers.
Warren Buffett, Joe Biden and many others were targeted in the scam, which offered to send £1,594 ($2,000) for every £797 ($1,000) sent to a bitcoin address.
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Twitter put out a statement noting it was aware of a “security incident impacting accounts on Twitter.” The company said it is investigating and working to fix it, and promised an update shortly.
Bezos, Gates and Musk are among the 10 richest people in the world, with tens of millions of followers on Twitter.
The hackers are thought to have made more than £797,000 ($100,000) in the space of just 10 minutes.
Many of the tweets have now been deleted although some still remain on the website.
Shares of Twitter plummeted following the major security breach which targeted some of the biggest names on its platform.