A recent Bitcoin scam on Twitter that compromised several major companies verified accounts came from a third-party app, tech news outlet the Next Web (TNW) reports Friday, Nov. 16, citing social media officials. Speaking to TNW, a Twitter spokesperson confirmed that the attack came from an outside software provider and not from Twitter’s own system. However, the official refrained from naming the app. The spokesperson reportedly explained that the attackers exploited a third-party marketing solution to launch a Bitcoin (BTC) giveaway from several verified accounts, including Google’s G Suite and major U.S. department store retailer Target. The information was implicitly …

Malware researcher Lukas Stefanko has found four fake cryptocurrency wallets on the Google Play Store that were trying to steal users’ personal data, according to a blog post published Nov. 13. The apps were posing as cryptocurrency wallets for NEO, Tether and an extension for accessing Ethereum (ETH), MetaMask. They were purportedly designed to phish users’ mobile banking credentials and credit card information. Stefanko classified the wallets into two groups, wherein the fake MetaMask app was a “phishing wallet” and the other three apps were “fake wallets.” Once the phishing app is installed and launched, it requests the user's private …

The official Twitter account of Google's G Suite was reportedly compromised to promote a Bitcoin (BTC) giveaway scam, technology and business news outlet the Next Web reported Nov. 13. The G Suite Twitter account was reportedly hacked to advertise a BTC giveaway scam to the page’s more than 800,000 followers. Scammers supposedly spread a message luring users to participate in a fraudulent 10,000 BTC giveaway, concurrently announcing that Google’s G Suite now accepts cryptocurrency as a means of payment. Screenshot of the scam message. Source: The Next Web According to the Hard Fork, the message disappeared barely more than 10 …

Several verified Twitter accounts have been hacked to impersonate Elon Musk today, Nov. 5, with one reportedly collecting almost $170,000. After compromising verified accounts, scammers changed the profile name and picture in order to pose as the Tesla CEO. Scammers would then post in comment threads started by the real Elon Musk, so as to give the impression of legitimacy. Some of the scam tweets said that Elon Musk was conducting “the biggest” crypto-giveaway in the world for those who use “Bitcoic” (read Bitcoin), and provided a link to “participate” in the giveaway. Screenshot of compromised Pathe UK account. Source: …

Reddit users have alleged that American Express (Amex) has sponsored crypto-skeptical content on Twitter, according to a popular forum thread opened Tuesday, Oct. 16. The tweet in question was allegedly circulated through Bloomberg’s Twitter network “TicToc” on Oct. 11, and was reposted as a screenshot to Redditor u/Alexsayzz’s thread titled “Anti-crypto propaganda... promoted by American Express,” which has had 4,100 upvotes and drawn 437 comments as of press time. As the screenshot reproduced below indicates, the tweet appears to have the hallmarks of a promoted post, and is recorded as having 42,000 views at the time the screenshot was taken. …

The team of cryptocurrency project TRON (TRX) has reportedly partnered with China's largest Internet search provider Baidu. Crypto market news service Coinness has claimed this in a tweet Thursday, Oct. 11, citing its private correspondence with TRON’s team. Neither TRON nor Baidu have been able to confirm the partnership to Cointelegraph as of press time. Without specifying the details of the partnership, Coinness has claimed that the deal between TRON and China’s Internet giant Baidu will be “officially” revealed by the cloud storage service Baidu Cloud “next week.” While Coinness claims that TRON has exclusively confirmed the partnership in private …

Can you remember exactly what you did on social media 10 days ago? Probably not. The days can blend together as you embark on a never-ending quest of liking posts and sharing memes. Social media can also have a detrimental effect on our mental health – with charities warning they could be particularly harmful if we compare the picture-perfect, filtered images posted by our friends to our own lives. Although these networks play a vital role in our daily lives – with research suggesting we now spend 135 minutes a day browsing and posting on such sites – a blockchain-based …

The CEO of SpaceX and Tesla Elon Musk asked Jackson Palmer, the creator of Dogecoin (DOGE), to help him combat "annoying" cryptocurrency scammers on Twitter in a tweet Monday, September 17. Mentioning Palmer in his tweet, Musk wrote: "@ummjackson if you can help get rid of the annoying scam spammers, that would be much appreciated." Palmer replied almost immediately, urging Musk to reach out to him using direct messages. The creator of Dogecoin promised to send Musk the script that could solve the problem: "If you DM me (your DMs aren’t open), I’ll send you the script - it’s short, …

Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey testified before a Congressional committee Wednesday, September 5 that the company is exploring blockchain technology for potential application. Dorsey answered questions during a hearing on Twitter transparency and accountability held in the U.S. House Committee on Energy and Commerce. Doris Matsui, a representative from California, asked Twitter’s CEO about what potential applications blockchain technology might have for the company. Dorsey answered that blockchain could be used to fight misinformation and scams, stating: "Blockchain is one that I think has a lot of untapped potential, specifically around distributed trust and distributed enforcement potentially […] We haven't gone …

Mobile payment company Square's Cash App has recently rolled out Bitcoin (BTC) trading in all 50 states, the firm confirmed in a Tweet August 13. According to the company’s announcement, Cash App users are now able to conduct Bitcoin buy and sell transactions in all the U.S. states. Square first launched Bitcoin trading on its app for a fraction of users back in November 2017. On Jan. 31, 2018, Bitcoin trading on Square’s Cash App was launched for almost all of its users, excluding those in New York, Georgia, Hawaii, and Wyoming. Co-founded nine years ago by Twitter CEO, Jack …

New research published today, Aug. 6, has shed light on the infamous phenomenon of cryptocurrency-related Twitter accounts advertising fake “giveaways,” revealing a network of at least 15,000 scam bots. The analysis of Twitter bots, which continue to aggravate and even fool unsuspecting users, came from cybersecurity company Duo Security. The project involved a huge tranche of 88 million Twitter accounts, with researchers using machine learning techniques to train a bot classifier. Using just the latest 200 tweets from each account, the classifier unearthed a mesh of 15,000 bots at work spreading fake competitions and impersonating some of the cryptocurrency industry’s …

Billionaire entrepreneur and engineer Elon Musk has recently called attention to scam bots that impersonate famous people on Twitter to steal Ethereum (ETH) and other cryptocurrencies from their victims. Ethereum’s co-founder Vitalik Buterin subsequently reacted to Musk’s tweet, suggesting on July 9 that CEO of Twitter Jack Dorsey should take measures to ameliorate the situation. In his tweet, the world-famous founder of Tesla Motors and SpaceX drew attention to crypto scammers on Twitter. Misspelling the name of Ethereum, Musk appeared to be impressed by the sophisticated “skillz” of the scammers: “I want to know who is running the Etherium scambots! …