The Twitter accounts for former Vice President Joe Biden and former President Barack Obama were compromised Wednesday afternoon by hackers pushing a bitcoin scheme amid a wide-scale attack on the social media platform.
“I am giving back to the community,” a now-deleted tweet posted on the presumptive Democratic presidential nominee’s account read. “All bitcoin sent to the address below will be sent back doubled! If you send $1,000, I will send back $2,000.”
Tweet posted to Joe Biden’s account Wednesday afternoon. Bitcoin address redacted. (Twitter / Screenshot)
A nearly identical tweet was posted to Obama’s personal Twitter account Wednesday afternoon.
#BREAK Former President Obama’s account now also part of this Twitter compromise. pic.twitter.com/tYbbCnPsmJ
— Donie O’Sullivan (@donie) July 15, 2020
Similar tweets were posted to the accounts of Biden’s former rival, former New York Mayor Mike Bloomberg, Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos, Microsoft founder Bill Gates, Kanye West, Elon Musk, Uber and other major figures. (RELATED: Twitter Flagged Trump Multiple Times Over A Month)
Serious, ongoing cyberattack on Twitter right now. pic.twitter.com/7O6f6qS9OR
— Ryan Calo (@rcalo) July 15, 2020
The bitcoin address linked in the tweets has racked up at least $100,000, according to NBC News, citing a public register of bitcoin transactions.
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.
— Twitter Support (@TwitterSupport) July 15, 2020
Twitter spokeswoman Aly Pavela told NBC News it was aware of the issue and was currently looking into the issue.
All content created by the Daily Caller News Foundation, an independent and nonpartisan newswire service, is available without charge to any legitimate news publisher that can provide a large audience. All republished articles must include our logo, our reporter’s byline and their DCNF affiliation. For any questions about our guidelines or partnering with us, please contact licensing@dailycallernewsfoundation.org.
