Cryptocurrency Scammers Have Hijacked Twitter Account of Argentinian Politician
- Bitcoin scammers have taken over the Twitter account of a prominent political person in Argentina.
- The actors are leading their prospective victims to fake giveaway pages and grab their crypto.
- The websites promise to give people 10 times the amount they send and feature hundreds of fake confirmatory comments.
The verified Twitter account of Jorge Enrique Taiana appears to have been hijacked by cryptocurrency scammers who are calling his 113,600 followers to like and retweet, as well as to visit a webpage that is going to distribute 5000 BTC to all participants. Another tweet promises 100,000,000 Doge coins, giving the same link.
The scammers present this as part of a mission to advance humanity by solving the world’s hardest problems. However, how exactly this is achieved by distributing cryptocoins is a question that nobody bothers to ask apparently.
The link takes gullible crypto holders to a page that attempts to mimic the appearance of Medium and presents Elon Musk, the most abused persona by cryptocurrency scammers. That page urges users to click on one more button, and eventually, they are taken to the make “giveaway” page, which now shows the Tesla emblem. The victims are required to send a small amount that they want to multiply by ten, so for example, if someone gives 1 BTC, they are promised 10 back.
This is allegedly to verify that the wallet address is valid, and unfortunately, a notable number of people still report falling for this old trick. Also, the hundreds of fake comments on that page aren’t helping at all, but, understandably, the scammers will employ all the tricks they can to convince their victims of the legitimacy of the giveaway.
We have checked to see if this is an isolated account hijack, and we couldn’t find any other verified accounts pointing to the same page or retweeting the scammers’ campaign post. While it is fortunate that the impact is limited to a single account followed by the audience of a specific country, the damage is still notable as Jorge Taiana is the National Senator for Buenos Aires, a prominent individual nonetheless. Also, he has been historically linked with the “Montoneros,” a left-wing guerrilla movement, so the claims about giving away cryptocoins are more easily accepted by people in Argentina that know Taiana’s past.
Crypto-scams on Twitter, Facebook, and even YouTube, are a permanent annoyance, and people need to learn to live with them and treat them with care. If you see typical signs of a scam, click on that report button and stop the crooks as soon as possible.
If you are a cryptocurrency holder, you should know that nobody holds legitimate giveaways. This is just something that doesn’t happen, ever, no matter how legit it is made to look. You will never get free crypto from anyone, be it an Argentinian politician, Elon Musk, Joe Biden, Bill Gates, or anyone else in the world.