The perpetrators targeted top-notch Twitterati such as Elon Musk, Joe Biden, Barack Obama, Bill Gates, and Warren Buffett.

Bad actors used a domain named CryptoForHealth.com as bait to lure bitcoin as part of their hack of the Twitter (NYSE: TWTR) accounts of many luminaries on Wednesday.

The attacks began at [19:00] UTC and were a “bitcoin giveaway” scam. Even Apple (NASDAQ: AAPL) and Uber (NYSE: UBER) were not spared.

The Twitter hack-and-scam

The scam artists compromised Twitter accounts and requested bitcoins from victims by promising to double the amount which they sent to a bitcoin wallet address.

Here is an image of a tweet purportedly by former President Obama.

Elon Musk’s hacked account “tweeted” that “I’m feeling generous because of Covid-19. I’ll double any BTC payment sent to my BTC address for the next hour. Good luck, and stay safe out there!”

Further, other celebrities whose accounts were taken over were:

• Benjamin Netanyahu
• Floyd Mayweather
• Kanye West
• Changpeng Zhao
• Charlie Lee
• Justin Sun
• Michael Bloomberg
• Jeff Bezos
• Wiz Khalifa
• xxxtencion
• Kim Kardashian West
• MrBeast

Exchanges also hacked

The hackers also targeted Twitter accounts of Binance, Coinbase, Gemini, and other crypto organizations.

Here’s CoinDesk:

“We have partnered with CryptoForHealth and are giving back 5000 BTC to the community. See more here: cryptoforhealth.com”

Twitter explains

Twitter said the sweeping and audacious bitcoin-cum-Twitter scam, which it described as “a security incident” was a “coordinated social engineering attack” on its platform.

Further, the bad actors targeted some of its employees to gain access to tools that allowed them to hijack these highly visible accounts.

Vice.com’s Motherboard said a Twitter insider was responsible for the attacks. Moreover, Motherboard claims that a Twitter spokesperson said the company is still investigating whether the employee hijacked the accounts themselves or gave hackers access to the tool.

Interestingly, Cryptonews.com estimates the scam netted the criminals about $120,000 in BTC.

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