Twitter silent as hackers rip-off customers with stolen high-profile verified accounts

Taking a look at Jase Robertson and David Dayen, you wouldn’t assume the 2 of them have a lot in widespread. Robertson is thought for his time on the A&E actuality TV present Duck Dynasty. He at the moment hosts a present on the conservative digital outlet TheBlaze. David Dayen is a longtime progressive journalist and govt editor for The American Prospect journal.

Nonetheless, over the previous few weeks, tweets from each Robertson’s and Dayen’s Twitter accounts have been sharing the very same messaging.

“Whats up twitter household !” begins the tweets posted to each accounts. “I’ve 10 MacBooks that I’ll personally signal myself , which you could buy for $600 and free Delivery ! First come first serve foundation , and all proceeds might be going to charity ! MY DMS ARE OPENED IF INTERESTED”

Included in every account’s tweets is the very same photograph of a MacBook Professional sitting on wooden flooring. What’s occurring right here? Have Dayen and Robertson put their political variations apart and begin an Apple reselling enterprise?

No. They’ve been hacked, together with a slew of different legacy verified accounts on the social media platform. And, Twitter has been silent on the matter. 

Though a few of these accounts have been hacked for weeks now, Twitter has not suspended the accounts, permitting the hackers to rip-off customers of 1000’s of {dollars}, if no more.

A tweet from David Dayen’s hacked Twitter account.
Credit score: Mashable Screenshot

Dayen tells Mashable that he was initially hacked final summer season after clicking on a malicious hyperlink which supplied unhealthy actors with entry to his account. He says his account was rapidly suspended by Twitter then, properly earlier than Elon Musk acquired the corporate. When he regained entry a few month later, Dayen rapidly activated two-factor authentication on his account. Enacting this safety measure ought to’ve made one other hack extraordinarily tough to hold out.

Nonetheless, right here the @ddayen Twitter account is, simply 6 months later, hacked and scamming the platform’s customers.

Followers are falling for the scams

Mashable heard from at the least one in every of Dayen’s followers who received scammed after seeing Dayen’s tweets. This particular person noticed a tweet from a consumer they trusted and, not realizing Dayen was hacked, fell for the scheme in a second of desperation.

“I fell for it,” the Twitter consumer advised Mashable. “I desperately want a pc.”

One other tweet from David Dayen’s hacked Twitter account.
Credit score: Mashable Screenshot

This particular person shared the personal DM dialog between themself and the particular person working the hacked @ddayen account. Additionally they supplied screenshots of the $1,500 transaction that they made to the scammer, which included funds from members of the family who additionally had needed to buy a MacBook. The scammer required that they paid by way of Zelle, Cashapp, or Apple Pay – all peer-to-peer cost providers that always don’t present refunds to customers who’re scammed.

Dayen tells Mashable that he’s filed two help tickets with Twitter since he was hacked on March 12. He additionally despatched replies to Twitter’s auto-reply asking for extra data. As well as, he has tweeted publicly at Twitter’s official help account, @TwitterSupport. His account stays each hacked and energetic, the scammer’s tweets seen to all of Twitter.

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“Wonderful that @twittersupport hasn’t at the least locked @ddayen after I reported the hack together with dozens of different individuals,” Dayen tweeted(Opens in a new tab) from his backup account, @david_dayen.

This isn’t an remoted incident

Duck Dynasty‘s Robertson was hacked even earlier, with the sooner rip-off tweet seen on his account’s feed showing on March 2. Robertson introduced he was hacked to his followers on a March 5 episode(Opens in a brand new tab) of his podcast.

Winnie Wong, a former senior political advisor to Bernie Sanders’ 2020 presidential marketing campaign, was additionally hacked by these scammers. Though, they look like attempting one thing totally different along with her account.

Wong tells Mashable that when she was first hacked and booted from her @WaywardWinifred account on March 13, the scammers initially began to publish about the identical MacBook rip-off. However then, after she started(Opens in a new tab) tweeting(Opens in a new tab) about her and Dayen being hacked from her different high-profile Twitter account, @People4Bernie, the scammers blocked her account from viewing tweets from the hacked accounts. Then, the scammers modified her Twitter profile and header with the intention to make the account appear to be an official Twitter profile. 

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The hacked @WaywardWinifred account then had began(Opens in a new tab) to privately DM Wong’s contacts – together with politicians and different influential customers – pretending to be a member of Twitter’s help. The DMs knowledgeable the consumer that they broke Twitter’s insurance policies and wanted to fill out a type at a web site “security-twitter.com/resetpassword,” a phishing web site setup by the scammer to appear to be a Twitter web page with the intention to trick the consumer into sharing their password to allow them to take over the account.

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The phishing web site at the moment forwards to an Instagram account @morcegoen(Opens in a brand new tab), which seems to be linked to the scammer. A single photograph(Opens in a brand new tab) on @morcegoen’s web page has feedback from verified Instagram customers like actor John Cusack. Cusack himself had his Instagram account hacked on the time this account was made. Cusack’s Instagram account posted images of MacBooks whereas it was hacked, together with the identical “10 MacBooks” on the market textual content.

The identical scammer hit different high-profile Twitter accounts earlier this yr too. Actress Anya Taylor Joy(Opens in a new tab)‘s Twitter account was hacked and began tweeting out the MacBook rip-off in January. Actor Jonathan Frakes(Opens in a new tab)‘ account began doing the identical in late December of final yr too. Nonetheless, each Pleasure’s and Frakes’ account has been restored to its rightful proprietor since then.

A January tweet from Anya Taylor Pleasure’s hacked Twitter account.
Credit score: Mashable Screenshot

Thus far, all high-profile accounts which were hacked are legacy verified accounts, which means they have been verified earlier than Musk took over the platform and allowed customers to buy a Twitter Blue verified checkmark for $8 monthly.

Twitter’s inaction on the matter is an issue. As Wong tells me, her concern isn’t a lot that she will be able to’t entry her account, it’s that the accounts haven’t but been suspended. This makes it attainable for the hacker to proceed to rip-off her followers in addition to different Twitter customers. She factors out that the problem with the accounts that have been stolen earlier this yr, similar to Anya Taylor Pleasure’s, have been resolved at a time when Twitter had a bigger workforce. Since these hacks earlier this yr, Twitter has gone underneath further rounds of layoffs.

Twitter couldn’t be reached for remark by Mashable as the corporate now not has a communications division underneath Musk.