advertisement
Facebook
X
LinkedIn
WhatsApp
Reddit

Target and G Suite Twitter accounts compromised for Bitcoin scam

Despite its drastic drop in value Bitcoin is still seemingly a tempting prospect for many Twitter users.

In recent months you might have spotted official accounts giving away Bitcoin or rather, promising to give away Bitcoin.

Followers of Elon Musk on Twitter might have seen this before. After a string of tweets one might find a reply that looks like it’s from Musk promising up to 40 Bitcoin in return for a slightly smaller amount of Bitcoin.

As you might suspect this is a scam and now official accounts appear to have been compromised too.

Yesterday we spotted a tweet that appears to have come from the official Target Twitter account, clicking the profile name redirected us to the official Target account.

Perhaps most worrying for us was the fact that this tweet was promoted.

Target confirmed that its account had been compromised for a short while later that day.

“Early this morning, our Twitter account was inappropriately accessed. The access lasted for approx. half an hour & one fake tweet was posted during that time about a bitcoin scam. We have regained control of the account, are in close contact with Twitter & are investigating now,” the US retailer tweeted.

Target was not the only high-profile account that was seemingly compromised. Google’s G Suite product ran a similar tweet according to The Verge.

When that publication contacted Twitter regarding these compromised accounts the social network said it was improving how it handles cryptocurrency scams and is investing in tools to better handle spam in the future.

Twitter is yet to say how this is happening but given that these are social network accounts that are likely controlled by more than one person the absence of two-factor authentication is a strong possibility.

That would mean these accounts are likely protected by one password shared among multiple users which can lead to problems such as the one we’re dealing with now.

How long this scam will last is a mystery but for now, if you spot an offer that’s too good to be true, it likely is.

[Image – CC 0 Pixabay]

advertisement

About Author

advertisement

Related News

advertisement