Twitter account takeover turns Bitcoin scam into global public spectacle
Attackers took over high-profile Twitter accounts and used them to promote a Bitcoin doubling scam, turning a platform-security breach into one of the year's most visible Bitcoin-related fraud episodes.
On July 15, compromised accounts belonging to figures and companies including Barack Obama, Joe Biden, Elon Musk, Bill Gates, Apple and major cryptocurrency businesses posted messages directing users to send bitcoin to scam addresses in exchange for a promised doubled payment.
New York's later investigation found that the attackers had obtained access to Twitter's internal tools through social engineering of employees. More than $100,000 in bitcoin was sent to scam addresses before Twitter regained control.
The event was not a failure of Bitcoin's network. Bitcoin was the payment rail chosen by attackers exploiting Twitter's centralized account-control system. The distinction became an important public lesson because the incident was widely described as a 'Bitcoin scam' even though the security breach occurred inside Twitter.