The South African National Cricket Organization fell prey to scammers on Twitter offering fake Bitcoin lottery. Interestingly, Cricket South Africa (CSA) tweeted their participation in the scheme early morning. Later, the official Twitter account was compromised overnight resulting in multiple tweets trying to sell bitcoin lottery. It all began at 4.20 AM IST on Monday with the tweet stating-
Staff claims that the organization begun it’s partnership with Luno, a United Kingdom-based cryptocurrency wallet, via which users could win a prize worth 20 BTC ($70,900).
The tweet mentions-
? Please be aware that the @OfficialCSA Twitter account has been compromised. Our friends in South Africa are working hard to resolve the situation quickly.
Please do not click on any links or engage with the account until such time as this is rectified. pic.twitter.com/wJmk2v4sWg
— ICC (@ICC) January 14, 2019
The Continued Menace
The compromised nature and spam tweets continued in the morning with two more post 9 AM in the Indian time zone. Also, the tweet included a Bitcoin address to which those wishing to be involved should send a 0.01 BTC, and was active for around five hours.
“Apologies to all our Twitter followers who were affected by the hack overnight,”
Also Read: University of Bahrain to issue Diplomas on BlockCerts
CSA subsequently wrote in a follow-up tweet after confirming their Twitter was back under their control. Moreover, in a separate message, Luno also confirmed the news was not authentic, officials stating:
And… we’re back!
Apologies to all our Twitter followers who were affected by the hack overnight. We are back in control & ready to bring you what promises to be an even more eventful Day 4 of Test cricket.
Thank you to our friends at the @ICC for your assistance this morning. pic.twitter.com/9z6KSBvB94— Cricket South Africa (@OfficialCSA) January 14, 2019
Also, the Bitcoin address used in the scam contained a balance of 0.02 BTC ($70) as per press time. Furthermore, this suggests only two users sent funds.
Also Read: Another Bad Week for Elon Musk; Space X lays of 600 employees