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Elon Musk, Jeff Bezos, and Bill Gates appear to have had their Twitter accounts hacked as part of a bitcoin giveaway scam (TSLA)

  • Bill Gates, Elon Musk, and Jeff Bezos appear to have had their Twitter accounts hacked as part of a colossal cryptocurrency scam. 
  • The tech moguls' accounts began sending tweets Wednesday afternoon offering to double bitcoin payments sent to their addresses. 
  • Musk posted multiple tweets Wednesday afternoon containing what claimed to be his bitcoin address, saying he was "feeling generous because of COVID-19."
  • Musk, Bezos, and Gates weren't the only high-profile accounts that were compromised. Several crypto exchange and payments accounts were attacked, including Coinbase, Ripple, and Cash App. Tech companies like Apple and Uber also appeared to have their accounts hacked.
  • A Twitter spokesperson told Business Insider the issue is "being looked into."
  • Visit Business Insider's homepage for more stories.

Elon Musk, Bill Gates, and Jeff Bezos have been hacked as part of a widespread bitcoin giveaway scam.

Musk posted multiple tweets Wednesday afternoon containing what claimed to be his bitcoin address, saying he was "feeling generous because of COVID-19." Gates' account sent a nearly identical tweet minutes later, followed by Bezos.

Musk's account followed up with another tweet stating that if "You send $1,000, I send back $2,000!" for the following 30 minutes. 

Bezos' account was compromised around 5 p.m. Wednesday, with the exec tweeting that he would only do "a maximum of $50,000,000" in bitcoin giveaways.

The tweets on all three accounts have each only stayed up a few minutes before being removed.

Musk's, Gates', and Bezos' accounts aren't the only one that have been compromised. Several high-profile financial services and crypto exchange accounts, such as Cash App, Ripple, Binance, and Coinbase, were affected on Wednesday as well. According to CoinDesk, the attackers hacked Changpeng Zhao, the CEO of Binance, after he attempted to warn users of the scam. Several of the entities that were hacked, including CoinDesk, had multi-factor authentication turn on, the site reports. 

Accounts for tech companies like Apple and Uber also appeared to be hacked as part of the same bitcoin scam. Those tweets have since been deleted.

A Twitter spokesperson told Business Insider the issue is "being looked into." Representatives for Bezos and Musk did not immediately respond to requests for comment, but a Gates spokesperson confirmed to Business Insider that the tweet was not sent by Bill Gates.

Musk is frequently the target of cryptocurrency scams, with scammers impersonating his account in an attempt to get followers to send them digital currency. He tweeted in February about the ongoing issue, saying that "The crypto scam level on Twitter is reaching new levels. This is not cool."

This story is developing ...

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