A fake Elon Musk account promoting bitcoin scam was promoted on Twitter

Elon Musk.
Max
Whittaker/Getty Images

• Cryptocurrency scammers are pretending to be Tesla CEO
  Elon Musk on Twitter, and some of their tweets are being
  promoted onto timelines through Twitter’s ad
  service. 
• Generally, the scammers will hack a verified account,
  change the display name to “Elon Musk,” copy his profile photo,
  and then tweet about a fake cryptocurrency
  giveaway. 
• Twitter has attempted to curb these scams by blocking
  users from changing their display names to “Elon Musk,” but the
  scammers have found their way around Twitter’s efforts and
  continue to successfully promote their tweets. 

If you’ve used Twitter at all recently, you’ve probably seen what
looks like Elon Musk peddling a cryptocurrency “giveaway” on your
timeline. A closer look at the user’s Twitter handle will reveal
the account doesn’t belong to Elon Musk, it’s an imposter looking
to capitalize on the crypto craze.

The scam itself is pretty simple: the scammer hacks a
Twitter-verified account, changes the name to “Elon Musk” or
something similar, changes the profile picture to Musk’s current
photo, and then begins tweeting as if they were the Tesla CEO.
The scammers showed up frequently in Musk’s mentions, often
acting like they’re continuing a thought that Musk left off in a
real tweet. Then, they link out to a cryptocurrency scam, usually
claiming Musk is doing a giveaway that requires users to send
some of their own cryptocurrency to the scammer.

Recently, however, these scams have ventured outside of Musk’s
mentions and into timelines. After hacking a verified account,
the scammers have successfully “promoted” their tweets using
Twitter’s ad service, effectively forcing their way into
timelines of everyday users.

Twitter has
attempted to combat these scams by blocking accounts without
mobile verification from adding “Elon Musk” into their display
name. But the scammers have circumnavigated these restrictions,
sometimes by using different characters but still maintaining a
display name that appears to be “Elon Musk” at first
glance. 

On Monday, the film studio Pathe UK’s Twitter account was hacked
and used for fake Elon Musk cryptocurrency scams. The scammer
subtly changed the “l” in “Elon” to a different character,
presumably so the account name wouldn’t get automatically flagged
by Twitter. 

Twitter

Pathe later said it regained control of its account, and deleted
the fake Musk tweets. Pantheon Books also fell
victim to a fake Musk hack, and its profile picture has since
been deleted and its display name has been changed to “.” 

A Twitter spokesperson said the company does not comment on
individual accounts, but offered the following statement: 

“Impersonating another individual to deceive users is a clear
violation of the
Twitter Rules. Twitter has also substantially improved how we
tackle cryptocurrency scams on the platform. In recent weeks,
user impressions have fallen by a multiple of 10 in recent weeks
as we continue to invest in more proactive tools to detect spammy
and malicious activity. This is a significant improvement on
previous action rates.”