This article was published on November 6, 2018

India’s national disaster authority hacked to promote Bitcoin scams on Twitter

Scammers have unleashed a mass attack on Twitter


India’s national disaster authority hacked to promote Bitcoin scams on Twitter

The cryptocurrency market is going through a rough patch, but this isn’t stopping scammers from duping people out of their funds. Hackers took over the official Twitter account of India’s National Disaster Management Authority (NDMA) to promote blatant Bitcoin giveaway scams – a trend that’s been plaguing social media for months now.

It’s worth pointing out that unlike other similar incidents, the hackers did not post any malicious links directly from the NDMA’s account; instead, they used the account to respond positively to malicious links posted from other accounts, perhaps in an effort to make them look more legit.

“I sent 0.30 BTC and got 6 BTC back,” one of NDMA’s tweets read. “Elon, you are the best person I have ever seen in my life,” another said, likely responding to one of the many fake Elon Musk accounts propagating malicious giveaway links.

The good thing is the NDMA social media team has since managed to reclaim control of its account. All malicious tweets have been wiped, but the NDMA has yet to address the mishap.

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cryptocurrency, blockchain, twitter, india, scam, elon, musk

This is the latest in a series of hackings targeting verified profiles.

Just yesterday, attackers hijacked the official accounts of Europe’s second largest film company and popular fashion retailer Matalan. According to reports, the hackers made off with over $150,000 worth of cryptocurrency.

[H/T @fs0c131y @olihough86]

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