Security News > 2021 > January > Verified Twitter accounts hacked in $580k ‘Elon Musk’ crypto scam
Threat actors are hacking verified Twitter accounts in an Elon Musk cryptocurrency giveaway scam that has recently become widely active.
In 2018, scammers raked in $180,000 using a successful Elon Musk giveaway scam promoted on Twitter.
Over the past week, security researcher MalwareHunterTeam has seen an uptick in verified Twitter accounts hacked in a scam promoting another fake Elon Musk cryptocurrency giveaway.
These accounts will reply to tweets, like Elon Musk's below, and promote a scam where Musk is allegedly giving away free cryptocurrency.
MalwareHunterTeam told BleepingComputer that most of the accounts hacked for this scam have been dormant without activity from the owner.
As Twitter disabled the ability to verify an account in July after the company was hacked in a massive cryptocurrency scam, verified accounts are in high demand for threat actors.