The British Army’s official Youtube and Twitter accounts were compromised Sunday and hackers used them to promote crypto, including bitcoin and ether giveaway scams featuring Tesla CEO Elon Musk.
British Army’s Social Media Accounts Used to Promote Bitcoin, Crypto, NFT Scams
The British Army confirmed Sunday that its official Youtube and Twitter accounts were breached.
The army’s verified Twitter handle with nearly 363K followers retweeted a number of posts promoting non-fungible token (NFT) scams before they were removed by Twitter. During the breach, the account name, profile picture, and banner image were changed to resemble NFT collections.
Meanwhile, the army’s Youtube account, which has 177K subscribers, was renamed “Ark Invest” and four live videos promoting bitcoin and ether giveaway scams were uploaded to the account. The scammers advertised that for every bitcoin or ether sent to them, you will receive twice the amount back. The videos featured Tesla CEO Elon Musk, former Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey, and Ark Invest CEO Cathie Wood.
Scammers often use public figures and celebrities to promote their cryptocurrency scams, particularly bitcoin and ether giveaways.
Besides Musk, Dorsey, and Wood, other well-known people who have been featured in crypto giveaway scams include Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates, Berkshire Hathaway’s Warren Buffett, and Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak.
In June, the U.S. Federal Trade Commission (FTC) revealed that more than 46,000 people reported losing over $1 billion in cryptocurrency to scams since the beginning of last year.
The spokesperson for the British Army was quoted by Reuters as saying: “We take information security extremely seriously and are resolving the issue. Until the investigation is complete it would be inappropriate to comment further.”
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