Target’s Twitter account got hacked earlier Tuesday (Nov. 13), with the bad guys using the retailer’s Twitter feed to trick unsuspecting consumers into giving away cryptocurrency.
According to a report in The Next Web, scammers tweeted out links to scam giveaways that encourage users to send small amounts of cryptocurrency to have a chance at winning more than $31 million worth of bitcoin. Target confirmed the scam to The Next Web’s Hard Fork, saying in an email that “the access lasted for approximately half an hour and one fake tweet was posted during that time about a bitcoin scam.” The retail giant went on to say that it is in close contact with Twitter, has deleted the tweet and has locked its Twitter account during the investigation.
It is not clear where the breach began, and Target did not provide specific details.
Earlier in November, several European online retailers were victims of a similar attack, noted the report. Elon Musk, the founder of Tesla, was used in a different bitcoin Twitter scam. The BBC reported at the time that hackers took over the accounts of multiple verified Twitter accounts and made their images and names appear to be Musk’s. From there, they posted a link for users to participate in a so-called giveaway. The tweet said that Musk had “left the post of director of Tesla” and that the executive “decided to make the biggest crypto giveaway in the world, for all my readers who use bitcoin,” according to the BBC. Just like in the Twitter scam, unsuspecting victims were asked to click a link that took them to a giveaway. In exchange for small bitcoin payments, they were supposedly enrolled in a sweepstakes to win much more bitcoin in return.
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