Twitter hacking sees Kanye West, Kim & Wiz Khalifa fall prey; accounts temporarily blocked

American rap mogul Kanye West is one of many celebrated personalities whose Twitter account was hijacked by BitCoin scammers on July 15. tweet from his account read, "I am giving back to my fans" as it went on to ask users to transfer cryptocurrency that "will be sent back doubled." Along with a bitcoin wallet address, it went onto add, "Only doing this for next 30 minutes!”

Read | Twitter blocked verified handles before restoring accounts as it probed Bitcoin scam

Rapper Wiz Khalifa was also targeted in scam where his account shared a similar mess for users with same cryptocurrency wallet address. Among or accounts compromised were Kanye's wife Kim Kardashian, former US president Barrack Obama, presumptive Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden, Tesla CEO Elon Musk, Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates, Twitter accounts of Apple, Uber, Square’s CashApp and many more.

Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates’ account also posted a similar mess at 1:48 pm PT but n it was quickly deleted. Twitter accounts of Apple, Uber, Square’s CashApp, and Coinbase were also hacked with intent to post similar messs which contained a bitcoin wallet address that directed to hackers. A series of scam tweets were launched that read, “I‘m feeling greatful, doubling all payments sent to my BTC address.”  While tweets contained similar bitcoin addresses, presumably one associated with hacker’s crypto wallet that funneled funds from users, Twitter tified that accounts were currently in review. 

Read | Twitter issues statement after major security lapse, launches Bitcoin scam investigation

Immediately, a Twitter spokesperson said in a tweet that  team was “looking into matter.” company stated that it will share a statement soon. In a tweet around 6 pm ET, Twitter Support wrote that it was “aware of a security incident impacting accounts on Twitter. We are investigating and taking steps to fix it. We will update everyone shortly.” 

Furr, company tified that users would be unable to send any tweets from ir verified handle as it had blocked user login and reset passwords rights as it probed bitcoin scam. 

Read | Former US President Barack Obama, Joe Biden in list of those hacked by Bitcoin scammers

Spams emerged despite two-factor auntication

As per reports,  bitcoin wallet has amassed over $100,000 within last few hours as a series of spams emerged despite two-factor auntications set on many of se celebrity accounts. 

While some of scam tweets were taken down by Twitter, a load of subsequent spam tweets followed that read, “Feeling grateful doubling all payments sent to my BTC address! You send $1,000, I send back $2,000! Only doing this for next 30 minutes.” 

Read | Bitcoin scammers hack Twitter accounts of Barack Obama, Bill Gates, Jeff Bezos, Elon Musk