Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Twitter account was compromised and a tweet posted saying that India had adopted bitcoin legal tender. 500 coins were purchased to distribute among all Indian citizens. The hack occurred at an important time for India, as it is currently working to create cryptocurrency legislation.
Hacker tweets about Indian government buying and giving away Bitcoin
A tweet encouraging a scam using bitcoin was sent to the Twitter account of Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, after which his Twitter account was compromised. It reads:
India officially recognized bitcoin as legal currency. Officially, the government purchased 500 bitcoins and distributed them to every resident of India.
Also included was a link to an online site that promoted a fraudulent bitcoin giveaway. The scam blog on blogspot.com was removed at the time this article was written.
Prime Minister Modi’s account was soon restored and the bitcoin scam tweet was deleted.
The official account for the Office of the Prime Minister of India then announced on Twitter that the Twitter handle for Prime Minister Modi “was very briefly compromised.” It added that “The matter was escalated to Twitter and the account has been immediately secured. In the brief period that the account was compromised, any tweet shared must be ignored.”
It isn’t the first time that Prime Minister Modi’s account has been hacked. The hacker also compromised Modi’s account in June 2013, as part a larger attack that included several world leaders, big companies and famous people. They also made use of the compromised accounts for a tweet about a scam to giveaway bitcoins.
In September, Modi’s Twitter account was hacked again. Tweets asking for bitcoin donations for the Prime Minister’s National Relief Fund for Covid-19 were posted on the account.
Scammers are common in crypto-space. Scammers use the likenesses of many celebrities and influencers to market their giveaways. These include Elon Musk CEO, Microsoft founder Bill Gates (Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak), Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong and Microstrategy CEO Michael Saylor.
Modi’s Twitter account hack came at a time when India is contemplating regulating bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies. A crypto bill has been listed to be considered in Lok Sabha, the lower house of India’s parliament.
There are reports suggesting that Modi will take a final decision on India’s crypto legislation. According to reports, he has attended at least two high-ranking meetings about crypto. Modi has recently called on leaders from democratic countries to work together to prevent cryptocurrencies (including bitcoin) falling into the wrong hands. Modi stated that cryptocurrency should be used in order to strengthen democracy at the Summit for Democracy, hosted last week by Joe Biden.
What do you think about hackers tweeting about bitcoin from Prime Minister Modi’s account? Please comment below.
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