Social media can be a useful way to connect with others, stay informed and express yourself. However, there are those who will try to exploit social media security holes to their advantage. We want to make sure our community is as safe and informed as possible. Now is a good time to examine a specific incident.
On Wednesday July 15th, Twitter experienced a significant security breach when some of the world’s most widely followed Verified Accounts — including those of Joe Biden, Barack Obama, Bill Gates and Elon Musk — started posting content linked to a crypto scam.
Twitter is still working on a full incident report, but late Wednesday, an official Twitter account posted:
“We detected what we believe to be a coordinated social engineering attack by people who successfully targeted some of our employees with access to internal systems and tools.”
The Twitter security team removed most of the fraudulent Tweets but unfortunately not before some people were persuaded to send bitcoin to addresses being shared by the perpetrators.
Blockchain.com wallets were not used in this scam¹
By using the Blockchain.com Explorer, anyone can look up the balance of the addresses the attackers used. As all bitcoin transactions are publicly viewable, anyone can track the scam in real time. At the time of this writing, over $117,000 worth of bitcoin from 401 transactions were sent to the following two addresses:
If you spot or suspect a scam, please report the profile pages to the relevant platform (in this case Twitter) and be sure to let us know too. We’ll do everything we can to help remove fraudulent scams and profiles.
Every day, our compliance team works hard to protect Blockchain.com users. In fact, we have saved or returned over $1.3 million in both a variety of fraudulent cases and investment scams.
As a friendly reminder, Blockchain.com will never initiate contact to ask you…
- To send us money
- To send us your 12 word recovery phrase
- For a fee to upgrade your account (i.e. to Gold level verification)
Blockchain.com User Support
Our support team conducts all customer communication through our Support Center and will only respond to you on our verified social media accounts. Be wary of anyone claiming otherwise — they’re probably not a Blockchain.com representative.
If it feels too good to be true, it probably is
Caution is the name of the game. Treat all offers of investment advice, mining opportunities, unofficial giveaway chances, or any ‘get rich quick’ scheme with the utmost caution. Blockchain.com will never offer these ‘opportunities.’ Any official cryptoasset airdrop we conduct will only occur directly in the Blockchain.com Wallet or Exchange to verified users in the Airdrop center.
Keep Yourself + Others Safe
- Never share your 12 word wallet recovery phrase with anyone.
- Never share sensitive information such as passwords or Wallet IDs, especially over social media.
- Avoid contact with any unofficial Facebook group, page, or profile claiming to represent Blockchain.com or our support team.
- Report any suspicious activity to our Support Center, as well as the social media platforms themselves (Facebook, Twitter, YouTube).
Make sure you’re following the official Blockchain.com accounts:
You can also follow our founders, Peter Smith and Nic Cary.
As the first and most trusted global cryptocurrency company, we know that security is foundational to a positive user experience and financial well-being. Please visit our Learning Portal to ensure you are utilizing Blockchain’s full suite of security measures.
