Former President Barack Obama's Twitter account appears to have been hacked as part of a cryptocurrency scam
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Sonam Sheth
Jul 16, 2020, 04:28 IST
In this screengrab taken from Twitter.com, former U.S. President Barack Obama endorses Democratic presidential candidate former Vice President Joe Biden during a video released on April 14, 2020.Twitter via Getty Images
Former President Barack Obama's Twitter account appeared to have been hacked on Wednesday.
Obama was one of several high-profile figures whose accounts seemed to be infiltrated by cryptocurrency scammers.
"I am giving back to my community due to Covid-19!" said the tweet from Obama's account, which has since been deleted. "All Bitcoin sent to my address below will be sent back doubled. If you send $1,000, I will send back $2,000!"
Former Vice President Joe Biden and the billionaires Bill Gates, Elon Musk, Mike Bloomberg, and Warren Buffett were also apparently hacked, as was the rapper Kanye West.
Twitter Support sent out a tweet saying, "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."
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Former President Barack Obama's Twitter account appeared to have been hacked on Wednesday.
Obama was one of several high-profile figures whose accounts seemed to be infiltrated by cryptocurrency scammers. The messages appear to employ a common tactic used to trick people into shelling out money by promising to send a bigger sum in return for a payment.
"I am giving back to my community due to Covid-19!" said the tweet from Obama's account, which has since been deleted. "All Bitcoin sent to my address below will be sent back doubled. If you send $1,000, I will send back $2,000!"
Former Vice President Joe Biden and the billionaires Bill Gates, Elon Musk, Mike Bloomberg, and Warren Buffett were also apparently hacked, as was the rapper Kanye West.
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The Biden campaign also released a statement saying, "Twitter locked down the account immediately following the breach and removed the related tweet. We remain in touch with Twitter on the matter."
Accounts belonging to the following people and entities were also hacked:
Uber
Apple
Square's Cash App
The late rapper XXXTentacion
The rapper Wiz Khalifa
Former boxer Floyd Mayweather
Wendy's
Coindesk, Gemini, and many other cryptocurrency apps
Wednesday's scam tweets were posted after several cryptocurrency companies' accounts shared malicious links, and Business Insider's Avery Hartmans reported that the website used in the links was taken offline shortly after the tweets were posted.
A Twitter spokesperson told Business Insider the company is looking into the activity. And the Twitter Support account sent out a tweet saying, "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."
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