Cybercrooks have used a well known name of billionaire Elon Musk in order to trick Twitter users into paying them in bitcoins. In order to carry out the attack they have hijacked multiple verified Twitter profiles and disguised them as fake profiles impersonating an eccentric billionaire and later posted a message saying “I’m giving 10 000 Bitcoic (BTC) to all community! I left the post of director of Tesla, thank you all for your suppoot”.

If any of the users attempted to receive his “free” bitcoins he had to undergo “verification” of his bitcoin wallet by paying the amount of 0.1 to 1 BTC to the designated account. Cybercriminals are reported to collect up to $170,000 thanks to this.

Twitter spokesperson announced that works are underway to develop technology that would prevent this type of scam. Limitations have been introduced to prevent making major changes to your account, such as changing the account name. In addition, spam has been reduced by 90%.