A number of high-profile Twitter (TWTR) accounts were the subject of a massive hack Wednesday afternoon in what appears to be a Bitcoin scam targeting verified users.
At 4:17 p.m., the account of Tesla (TSLA) CEO Elon Musk tweeted out a message asking people to send him a payment in Bitcoin, and in return, he would return double that amount: “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!”
The tweet was deleted minutes later, but it was replaced by another similar one:
Sign up for Kiplinger’s Free E-Newsletters
Profit and prosper with the best of expert advice on investing, taxes, retirement, personal finance and more - straight to your e-mail.
Profit and prosper with the best of expert advice - straight to your e-mail.
Over the next hour, a number of other major accounts were targeted, including Microsoft (MSFT) founder Bill Gates, who tweeted out a message with the same Bitcoin wallet address as the second Musk tweet.
Among the other accounts that appear to have been hacked:
- Former President Barack Obama
- Presidential candidate Joe Biden
- Berkshire Hathaway (BRK.B) CEO Warren Buffett
- Amazon.com (AMZN) CEO Jeff Bezos
- Rapper Kanye West
- Boxer Floyd Mayweather
- The official Apple (AAPL) Twitter handle
- Former New York City mayor Michael Bloomberg
- Digital currency exchange Coinbase
Twitter has written on its support account that "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."
The company reportedly stopped verified accounts from being able to tweet as it investigated the situation.
Later Thursday, Motherboard reported that, according to leaked screenshots and a pair of anonymous sources, a Twitter insider gave the hackers access.
"We used a rep that literally done all the work for us," one source told Motherboard.
Twitter later confirmed that they thought insiders facilitated the attack.
"We detected what we believe to be a coordinated social engineering attack by people who successfully targeted some of our employees with access to internal systems and tools," the company tweeted. "We know they used this access to take control of many highly-visible (including verified) accounts and Tweet on their behalf. We’re looking into what other malicious activity they may have conducted or information they may have accessed."
Users of the social media platform are strongly advised not to send payments to any wallet addresses seemingly associated with the Twitter hack.
TWTR shares were down 3% in after-hours trading in response to the developing event.
-
How to Navigate Your Medicare Advantage Plan in a DisasterIf you're a Medicare Advantage member in an area that has been impacted by a disaster, you might be worried about access to care and medicine. Here's what you need to know.
-
Older Investors: Boost Your Savings and Retire EarlierThis one measure can help older investors retire up to two years earlier and potentially double their retirement savings.
-
Nasdaq Ends the Week at a New High: Stock Market TodayThe S&P 500 came within a hair of a new high, while the Dow Jones Industrial Average still has yet to hit a fresh peak in 2025.
-
Stocks Swing Lower as Eli Lilly, Fortinet Spiral: Stock Market TodayThe main indexes finished well off their session highs after a disappointing batch of corporate earnings reports.
-
What Tariffs Mean for Your Sector ExposureNew, higher and changing tariffs will ripple through the economy and into share prices for many quarters to come.
-
Stocks Rally on Apple Strength: Stock Market TodayThe iPhone maker will boost its U.S. investment by $100 billion, which sent the Dow Jones stock soaring.
-
Dow Rises 585 Points on Rate Cut Hope: Stock Market TodayStocks moved more than 1% again Monday, this time to the upside following the Jobs Friday sell-off.
-
Dow Dives 542 Points on Soft Jobs Data: Stock Market TodayThe last day of a busy week ends with the first greater-than-1% move in either direction in more than a month.
-
Stocks Can't Hold Meta, Microsoft Gains: Stock Market TodayThe main indexes all opened higher Thursday on impressive Big Tech earnings, but momentum faded into the close.
-
Stocks Are Up and Down on Fed Day: Stock Market TodayIn another sign of changing times, JPMorgan has partnered with Coinbase to enable cryptocurrency purchases with credit cards.
