Bitcoin scammers impersonate Musk, Target

Hackers are perpetuating a scam in which they promise to compensate people with bitcoin if the victims first send along payments of the cryptocurrency.

In the latest version of a classic cybersecurity breach, the hackers apparently briefly gained control of big-box chain Target’s Twitter account on Tuesday morning.

Although Target said it regained control of the account within a halfhour, the hackers were able to post a tweet promising 5,000 bitcoin in “the biggest crypto-giveaway in the world!”

“We present cryptocurrency payments for your purchases in our store, and want to celebrate this event with all users!” the scammers said on Target’s Twitter account.

Bitcoin is a digital currency that is extremely hard to trace.

The hackers have also hacked other high-profile accounts.

In multiple cases, they have impersonated Elon Musk, the billionaire CEO of Tesla and SpaceX, and made a similar bitcoin pledge. To do so, they installed Musk’s Twitter photo on the verified Twitter accounts they hacked and changed the accounts’ display name to his. Musk’s genuine Twitter account has not been compromised.

In this incident, the scammers direct unsuspecting Twitter users to click on a giveaway link and to send bitcoin payments to them. By sending a certain amount, users are dubiously promised more bitcoin in return. V

In some cases, the hackers have apparently paid Twitter to promote the ads. It was not clear why Twitter was not able to stop those promotions.

“We’re in close contact with Twitter, have deleted the tweet and have locked the account while we investigate further,” Target said, acknowledging that its account was “inappropriately accessed” for a half-hour.

Tesla declined to comment. Twitter did not respond to a request seeking comment.