Hackers Compromise Twitter Account of India’s Prime Minister, Promote Bitcoin Giveaway Scam: Report

The Twitter account of India’s Prime Minister Narendra Modi was reportedly compromised by bad actors in an effort to perpetrate a Bitcoin giveaway scam.

According to a CNN report, the hackers sent out a message from Narendra Modi’s verified Twitter account claiming that India had adopted Bitcoin as legal tender.

The hackers also said that the Indian government had purchased hundreds of Bitcoin to distribute freely to all residents who clicked on a suspected scam link.

“India has officially accepted Bitcoin as legal tender. The government has officially bought 500 BTC and is distributing them to all residents of the country.”

The fake message is coming months after El Salvador officially adopted Bitcoin as a legal tender. In June, El Salvador also announced that it would buy Bitcoin worth approximately $135 million at the time to distribute to adult citizens.

Following the security breach, the Office of the Prime Minister of India later tweeted that all messages sent while the account was compromised “must be ignored.”

Narendra Modi’s Twitter account boasts approximately 73.4 million followers while the Office of the Prime Minister of India’s Twitter account has 45.4 million followers.

This is not the first time a Twitter account associated with India’s current Prime Minister was compromised to advance suspected crypto scams.

In September of 2020, the Twitter account of Narendra Modi’s personal website was hacked, according to a BBC report. The hacker(s) went on to post a message appealing for cryptocurrency donations to the “Prime Minister’s National Relief Fund for COVID-19,” per the report.

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