Getty
Elon Musk’s Twitter account tweeted that he would double any Bitcoin payment sent to a specific BTC address over the next hour. It sounded a lot like the scam tweets sent from fake Musk accounts in the past, but this one was tweeted from his confirmed Twitter. It was later revealed that this was part of a lot of Twitter accounts hacked today in the same Bitcoin scam. The tweets are all being deleted shortly after they’re being posted. The first tweet was sent around 4:15 p.m. Eastern on July 15 and it was pinned to the top of Musk’s Twitter. Then it was deleted just a few minutes later.
The Tweets Are Being Deleted Shortly After They Appear
The account first wrote: “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! bc1qxy2kgdygjrsqtzq2n0yrf2493p83kkfjhx0wlh”
Another tweet was then sent around 4:25 p.m. Eastern and then retweeted immediately after by Musk’s Twitter account. These tweets were deleted about 15 minutes later.
This second tweet shared the same Bitcoin address and read “Feeling greatful, doubling all payments sent to my BTC address! You send $1,000, I send back $2,000! Only doing this for the next 30 minutes. bc1qxy2kgdygjrsqtzq2n0yrf2493p83kkfjhx0wlh.”
His account had another tweet about 45 minutes prior to the first Bitcoin tweet, when he tweeted: “Only 20 mins from new international airport & 30 mins from Berlin! Will also have its own train station.” He was replying to another tweet he wrote the day before about the Giga factory in Berlin. That tweet was also deleted.
His Account Was Hacked Along with Many Others on Twitter
Kim Dotcom confirmed on Twitter that the account was hacked.
My fellow visionary @elonmusk just got hacked. pic.twitter.com/1zw9jIZlLl
— Kim Dotcom (@KimDotcom) July 15, 2020
Engadget reported that this was part of a crypto scam and that Bill Gates’ Twitter account had also been hacked earlier today. Other victims of the hack included CoinDesk, Binance, and Ripple.
Cameron Winklevoss tweeted that all the major crypto Twitter accounts were hacked, including one with a strong password and 2 Factor Authentication.
ALL MAJOR CRYPTO TWITTER ACCOUNTS HAVE BEEN COMPROMISED.
2FA / strong password was used for @Gemini account. We are investigating and hope to have more information shortly. https://t.co/X3C0uJzc6C
— Cameron Winklevoss (@winklevoss) July 15, 2020
Thousands of Dollars Were Sent to the Address Posted on Musk’s Twitter
Using Bitcoin Explorer to track the Bitcoin address that was tweeted from Musk’s account, Heavy found that the address had 88 transactions with a total of 1.69691376 BTC received and 0.00000000 BTC sent as of 4:28 p.m. Eastern.
The explorer shows a number of Bitcoin transactions sent to the address shortly after Musk’s account posted the tweet.
As of 4:30 p.m., the transactions were at 111 with 2.48638415 BTC received and none yet sent.
Then by 4:51 p.m. Eastern, there were 202 transactions and more than 5.85 BTC sent.
Blockchain.com
With one Bitcoin worth more than $9,200 right now, that’s more than $53,000 sent to the scammer blockchain account.
Then later, as of 5:04 p.m., the account had received 6.45364473 BTC and had sent 1.04832256 BTC.
READ NEXT: Daily COVID-19 Updates