The social media accounts of the British Army have been hacked by someone looking to promote a cryptocurrency scam. The YouTube and Twitter accounts of the Army have been overtaken by someone who remains anonymous at the time of writing. They are simply going by the name “psssd” online.
The British Army Was Being Used to Promote Crypto
The scam involves a new series of non-fungible tokens (NFTs) that resemble a real line of NFTs called “The Possessed.” Experts are warning traders that while these separate tokens may appear to be part of the same line, they are in fact false, and thus investors should not be duped into accepting offers that are on the table.
The real Possessed NFT line’s official Twitter account has put out warnings telling investors that these tokens are not real. The hacker has used all kinds of fake imagery and data to push the scam including the likenesses of Elon Musk – the South African billionaire entrepreneur behind both SpaceX and Tesla – and Cathie Wood of Ark Invest.
The British Army has put out the following statement through Britain’s Ministry of Defense:
The breach of the Army’s Twitter and YouTube accounts that occurred earlier today has been resolved and an investigation is underway. The Army takes information security extremely seriously and until their investigation is complete, it would be inappropriate to comment further.
Twitter appears to be a hotspot for many digital currency scams, and at the center of them all (quite often) is Elon Musk, not in a direct sense of course, but through illicit means. The scammers in question are constantly using past footage or images of Musk to promote their scams. This is likely because Musk has proven to be a major bitcoin and crypto bull in the past, and thus the scammers likely think people will believe the footage more easily.
At the time of writing, it appears control of the British Army social media pages have been given back to their proper managers and login data has been restored. A spokesperson for Twitter announced:
The account holders have now regained access and the account is back up and running.
Tobias Ellwood – a British conservative lawmaker who chairs Parliament’s defense committee – explained that the breach looked rather “serious.” He stated:
I hope the results of the investigation and actions taken will be shared appropriately.
This Keeps Happening
This is not the first time something like this has happened on Twitter. About two years ago, an unknown hacker gained control of several online social media accounts of high-ranking users including former president Barack Obama, Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates, and – of course – Elon Musk.
These accounts were used to promote phony crypto giveaways that ultimately resulted in the hacker garnering more than $120,000 in illicit digital funds.
Source: https://www.livebitcoinnews.com/british-army-twitter-page-hacked-to-promote-crypto-scam/