Twitter Accounts Of Obama, Biden Hacked In Apparent Bitcoin Scam | Talking Points Memo

Con artists on Wednesday apparently hacked into the Twitter accounts of technology moguls, politicians and major companies in an apparent bitcoin scam.


This is a companion discussion topic for the original entry at https://talkingpointsmemo.com/?p=1320762

The hackers considered sending their scheme from Trump’s twitter, but after looking at the percentage of his followers that are bots, they decided it wouldn’t be profitable.

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But they promised me lots of money in return for me giving them even more money! And I believe that Obama and Biden are heavily into bitcoin and want me to be too!

You know, as crappy as our election infrastructure is, in some ways it’s a good thing that most of it isn’t connected to the interwebs.

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Does the headline only mention Obama and Biden because this is primarily a political news site? Because the hacked accounts also included the official Twitter accounts of Uber, Apple and several blockchain companies. Leading with the politicians makes it seem… political.

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My question is why the scammers thought that people who follow tech moguls and Dem politicians would be likely to fall for the stupid scheme? Seems like it would be much more suitable for Trump followers and people who watch the “invest in gold!” ads on Fox News.

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I think a valid question would be: If trump’s twitter was hacked, how would we even know??

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Yeah. It’s all connected to the interwebs. Understand that the software that goes INTO the voting machine, has to have the ballot loaded in. The ballot is different in different jurisdictions. Dog catcher, school board, ‘referendum A or B’. Those ballots are CREATED on computers inside the respective governmental offices. Then loaded onto the voting machine. So “The Machines Aren’t Connected To The Internet” - is a false statement. They’re only a thumb drive away.

And keep in mind - that exactly ZERO machines were forensically checked for tampering to their code after the last presidential elections. Zero.

https://talkingpointsmemo.com/muckraker/dhs-doesnt-want-to-know-about-vote-hacks

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Trump’s followers are freaking out because there’s a shortage of actual coins. Don’t tell them there’s a virtual currency that is built using math and data science unless you want “Tucker Carlson face”.

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You know, if you make that face too often it will get stuck that way. Carlson is the proof.

ETA. Too not to…

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I actually work on elections and know how they work, the security systems in place etc. This is not what you have to worry about. It’s not impossible that the machines could be hacked, but it would be very hard, and most importantly, it would take the collusion of a lot of people, all of whom would have to keep their mouth shut. That’s not what you have to worry about.
What you do have to worry about is what Putin did. And general ratfucking. Voter suppression. Voter intimidation. These are the real ways to hack an election. The Republicans are using all of those.

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@rucleare, Soros was very clear this wasn’t supposed to be launched until Friday evening.

@rascal_crone is going to be putting something in your file, again. If not in your refrigerator, so maybe don’t drink the milk.

I suppose @playitagainrowlf put you up to it?

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Hey, not his fault - I think the constantly recrossing the International Date Line has thrown everybody’s body clocks off…

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But Tucker is now on “a long-planned vacation,” so his face may temporarily recover. The vacation, of course, has nothing whatsoever to do with his beloved head writer being outed as even more open of a racist than regularly came through on Tucker’s show.

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Most of the tech-savvy people I know understand enough about Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies that they would never fall for a scam like this. I guess you only need to snag a low percentage, but this is likely a really low yield scam.

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Lower than the “Nigerian Prince” email? I still get those. (Alternately, because my last name is Hispannic, I get lots of emails from “Bankers” in Argentina and Chile - offering to help me collect an ‘inheritance’. )

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Tucker-face is why I try to limit my exposure to his fans. They start talking and I can feel a wave of confusion pass over me.

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Also even people who normally fall for scams aren’t stupid enough to think Trump would ever give away money.

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I’m concerned again about Groupthink in reporting. Why does not the headline even at TPM not clearly say “Twitter was hacked”. It’s ridiculous to think all the individual accounts were hacked. So you get headlines saying that Biden got hacked, which carries an implication that he was stupid enough to use a Pet’s name as his password. Is this fear of a large corporation or what?

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Someone once described his expression as looking like he’s watching someone eat mayonnaise straight out of the jar.

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I don’t know why I even try when you or Irasdad might show up and drop a comment Matt.

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