Twitter grapples with fake Elon Musk accounts promoting bitcoin scams

It would appear that @Capgemini Australia’s official twitter handle has been hacked and is now being used (via promoted tweets) to represent as an @elonmusk-related BTC giveaway.

(Go to all this trouble and still misspell “support”? 419 scam self-selection) pic.twitter.com/fBDYCGqCy9

— James Lloyd 勞瞻斯 (@jamesplloyd) November 12, 2018

One of those promoted fake Elon Musk bitcoin tweets from a verified account just appeared on my timeline. Hey @jack, are you anywhere close to cracking this scam? pic.twitter.com/lxi8Av8Pg5

— Katie Collins (@katiecollins) November 12, 2018

Elon Musk speaks at a press conference at SpaceX headquarters.

Bitcoin scammers pretending to be Tesla CEO Elon Musk on Twitter are at it again.

Monday – Twitter – Accounts – Farah – Menswear

On Monday, hijacked Twitter accounts for Farah menswear, a UK clothing brand, and the Australia office of IT consulting firm Capgemini tweeted on Monday they were giving away cryptocurrency. At first glance, the tweets looked as though they were coming from Musk but the names of the account handles signaled they were scams.

Other businesses, including a book publisher and record label, have had their accounts taken over in the past. The attackers hijack a verified account, often with thousands of followers, and change the name and profile picture to impersonate Musk. They then ask users to send some of their own cryptocurrency to participate in the fake giveaway.

Scammers – Ads – Network – Tweets – Users

It also appears that the scammers are purchasing ads through the social network to “promote” their tweets to more users.

It would appear that @Capgemini Australia’s official twitter handle has been hacked and is now being used (via promoted tweets) to represent as an @elonmusk-related BTC giveaway.

Twitter – Users

Some Twitter users have been…