Some of the most famous names in technology, transportation, music, entertainment, and politics were hacked today on Twitter in one of the largest and most elaborate Twitter hacks we've ever seen. Getting hacked on social media sites is relatively common, but it's a lot less common for the super famous among us. It's even less common for people like Bill Gates, Elon Musk, and Jeff Bezos, but that's exactly what happened today.
Keep reading to find out what the hackers wanted and how much they ended up getting away with...
It all started with Elon Musk.
via: Twitter
The tweet, which has since been deleted, is a ploy to get unsuspecting users to send bitcoin to an unidentified cryptocurrency account. The tweet promises money back for money sent which is like, the definition of a scam. Come on, people. Any time someone offers you free money, you should know it's not legit. And yet... people still sent their hard-earned money. Just how much did they send? According to Gizmodo, "The hackers appear to be using a number of different wallets but the address being used on tweets from Musk and Gates has received around $59,000 worth of bitcoin so far." Yikes.Musk wasn't the only victim. Jeff Bezos was also hacked.
via: Twitter
Bezos, the founder and CEO of a little shopping site you may know as Amazon, was the next victim to be hacked by the mysterious bitcoin scam.And Bill Gates was hacked.
via: Twitter
Bill Gates, business magnate, philanthropist, and co-founder of Microsoft, was another victim of the scammy hack. What's almost funny about the tweet is that it starts with "Everyone is asking me to give back..." which is a little silly considering Gates' Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation gives millions of dollars a year to people in need and charitable causes that need funding.Our former president, Barack Obama, was also hacked.
via: Twitter
Not even former presidents were exempt from the malicious bitcoin scheme. Obama's tweet varied slightly from Gates' in that it referenced the current state of the world, but in general, it was nearly a carbon copy of the other tweets.Even Kanye West was hacked.
via: Twitter
Kanye West, who reportedly dropped out of the 2020 presidential race today, was also affected by the hack. It's been a big day for Ye, and I'm going to wager, not a good one.Strangely, the corporate Apple account was hacked, too.
via: Twitter
Apple, who is notorious for having 4.6M Twitter followers and having never published a tweet, published its first tweet via this scam, though it's since been deleted. Apple is now back to having zero tweets.Eventually, Twitter responded...
We are aware of a security incident impacting accounts on Twitter. We are investigating and taking steps to fix it.… https://t.co/i8VqGMjWsN— Twitter Support (@Twitter Support)1594849521.0
Eventually, they even confirmed it with a follow-up tweet.
You may be unable to Tweet or reset your password while we review and address this incident.— Twitter Support (@Twitter Support)1594851515.0