Google’s G Suite Twitter account hacked, promotes bitcoin giveaway scam

Google CEO Sundar Pichai.Beck Diefenbach/Reuters

• The official Twitter account for Google’s G Suite was the latest to fall victim to a cryptocurrency giveaway scam on Twitter.
• The scam tried to convince people to send them bitcoin to be entered into a sweepstakes. 
• The post has since been deleted, and spokespeople from Google and Twitter say the companies are working together to investigate the hack of the G Suite account.
• Many verified Twitter accounts have been hacked to promote similar cryptocurrency scams — the hackers will commonly impersonate Elon Musk.
• Target, the retailer, seems to have also been hit with a similar scam on Tuesday.

An official, verified Twitter account for Google’s G Suite was hacked by scammers seeking to bilk innocent people out of their bitcoin — making it the latest victim in a scourge that the social network can’t quite stamp out.

Sent Tuesday afternoon, a tweet from the G Suite account shared information about the “biggest crypto-giveaway in the world,” which followers could access by first sending over some bitcoin of their own. The tweet was spotted by Twitter users who managed to grab screenshots of the post before it was deleted.

Verified accounts across Twitter have recently fallen victim to this kind of widespread hacking effort. Needless to say, the cryptocurrency giveaway to which it makes reference doesn’t exist — it’s a ploy to get cryptocurrency.

These accounts, some of which are edited to impersonate Tesla CEO Elon Musk, share tweets that peddle a fake cryptocurrency giveaway and attempt to scam Twitter users into sending bitcoin via a sketchy URL. Some posts, as in the case of the G Suite tweet, were even successfully “promoted” through Twitter’s ad service to appear higher up in followers’ feeds.

“This morning an unauthorized promoted tweet was shared from the G Suite account,” a Google spokesperson said in a statement provided to Business Insider. “We removed the tweet and are investigating with Twitter now.”

A Twitter spokesperson told Business Insider that the G Suite account was locked as the team discovered it was “innapropriately accessed,” and that the platform would continue to “closely monitor” the situation.

Read more: Twitter is struggling to curb fake Elon Musk accounts promoting cryptocurrency scams

Twitter is well aware of the cryptocurrency scam since reports first surfaced back in July, when the platform tried to curb the hacks by instantly locking any accounts that changed their display name to “Elon Musk.” But scammers have found ways to circumvent Twitter’s efforts, and have gained access to verified accounts including those for Pantheon Books, India’s national disaster authority, and Fox’s discontinued TV show “Almost Human.”

The platform is apparently taking further steps and investing in “proactive tools” to fight the cryptocurrency scams, says the Twitter spokesperson. 

Google was not the only major company hit Tuesday by the bitcoin scam — Target was also apparently hacked, as the retailer posted to Twitter.

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