In a surprise twist of events, “Blue Checks” is trending on Twitter today for an exciting reason that’s caused quite the commotion.
Blue checks have always been Twitter’s way of differentiating real accounts of prominent social and political figures from fake accounts that would attempt to steal people’s identities. Some would argue that it is also recently seen as a way by some people to elevate their social status. However, it has just put a target on multiple people’s backs fromTwitter hackers.
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Earlier today, Bitcoin scammers hacked into multiple public figures' accounts, such as Bill Gates andElon Musk, in an attempt to earn virtual money in the form of Bitcoins. Tweets were made from these users' accounts that asked their millions of followers to send the Bitcoin to a wallet in exchange for double the amount to be sent back to them.
Now it seems thatTwitterhad temporarily blocked accounts earlier today from posting to mitigate the damages and investigate the situation. Non-verified Twitter users, in response, have seized the opportunity to make memes out of the current situation and relish in the fact that the verified accounts aren’t able to make posts.
While this may seem strange that multiplecelebrity Twitter accountswere making the same request for money, this didn’t stop some people from sending money before the breach could be contained. According to Tom Warren, an employee over at The Verge, the scammers were able to receive more than 250 transactions and raise around $104,000 before they could be stopped.
It is unknown if there has been an investigation launched on the matter yet, but with these sorts of crimes involving Bitcoin, it is hard to say if people will be able to get their money back. Twitter does offer optional security features that would have helped prevent this catastrophe; perhaps it will just enforce verified accounts to follow them in the future. Interestingly, manytech giants such as Applehave fallen victim to this hack. In any case, let this be a lesson for all to take better care of their passwords and never use the same passwords on all accounts.
