In a report from Southeast Asia, it appears that hackers were able to access a diplomatic Twitter ($TWTR@US) account and perpetuate a Bitcoin scam. The Consulate General of Indonesia in Kota Kinabalu, Malaysia’s Twitter feed was hacked and the name changed to Elon Musk. Hackers then began posting messages that, while they look like spam, feature musing from someone claiming to be the Tesla ($TSLA@US) CEO and crypto bull. Among the messages was a 5000 Bitcoin giveaway and a few links that promised 100 Bitcoin in return for a small payment between .02 Bitcoin and 10 Bitcoin. At press time, analysts noted that the wallet connected to the scam only held a fraction of a Bitcoin valued at just over $3500. In other news, Ethereum co-creator Vitalik Buterin was impersonated on Instagram as part of a staking scam, and crypto rug pulls netted around $8 billion in 2021 with Elon Musk impersonators collecting over $2 million in stolen cryptocurrency. Crypto investors are advised to never click links from sources they do not trust and to only trade with verified exchanges or brokers.
