Display Banner

Twitter (TWTR) accounts belonging to Joe Biden, Bill Gates, Elon Musk and Apple, among other prominent handles, were compromised on Wednesday and posted tweets that appeared to promote a cryptocurrency scam.

The accounts, along with those of former President Barack Obama, Kanye West, Kim Kardashian West, Warren Buffett, Jeff Bezos and Mike Bloomberg, posted similar tweets soliciting donations via Bitcoin to their verified profiles on Wednesday.

“Everyone is asking me to give back, and now is the time,”

Gates’ tweet said, promising to double all payments to a Bitcoin address for the next 30 minutes.

In a tweet on Wednesday, Twitter’s support account said:

“We are aware of a security incident impacting accounts on Twitter. We are investigating and taking steps to fix it. We will update everyone shortly.”

A little more than an hour after the attack began, Twitter apparently moved to prevent holders of verified accounts from tweeting.

A CNN test showed non-verified accounts could still tweet. “You may be unable to Tweet or reset your password while we review and address this incident,” Twitter’s support account said.