Apparently, posing as Elon Musk on Twitter and running 'Bitcoin giveaway' scams really pays off - $179,284 now sits in the scammers wallet!

This time, the scam was at least a bit more creative than usual - the scammers first hacked a real verified account, giving them control over a username that has the blue "verified" check mark next to it.

Then, they switched the account name to "Elon Musk" and tweeted out the following:

The tweet that went out, notice how the actual account is @patheuk

But they didn't stop there - then (using a stolen credit card we can safely assume) they purchased advertising from Twitter and gave the post some extra promotion - causing tens of thousands of extra people to see it.

The scam itself was the usual bait of "send some Bitcoin i'll send even more back" - which from a verified account or not - is always an obvious scam. So, honestly it's a bit hard to feel sorry for the 'victims' here.

Now, a look into the wallet the site directed people to send funds to (1KAGE12gtYVfizicQSDQmnPHYfA29bu8Da) is sitting with a little over 28 BTC in it! Valued at nearly $180k.

A look into the wallet of the scammer. 

Elon Musk has been a long time favorite person to pose as for scammers on Twitter, A few month ago he even remarked "I want to know who is running the Etherium scambots! Mad skillz …"

Twitter has taken down the tweets, and given the hacked @PatheUK account back to the rightful owners.

For a look back on some other past Twitter imposter scams, check out a short article I wrote at the beginning of the year titled "People are falling for some of the dumbest scams we've ever seen".

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Author: Ross Davis
E-Mail: Ross@GlobalCryptoPress.com Twitter:@RossFM
San Francisco News Desk