Sunday's tweet claimed that India's government has purchased 500 BTC, and it plans to start "distributing them to all residents of the country."
The Twitter account of India's Prime Minister Narendra Modi was hacked over the weekend — and a message was posted to declare the country is embracing Bitcoin as legal tender.
Sunday's tweet claimed that India's government has purchased 500 BTC, and it plans to start "distributing them to all residents of the country."
The post also featured a suspicious link that appeared to direct viewers to a Bitcoin giveaway scam, and concluded:
"The future has come today!"
Hours later, the prime minister's office said Narendra Modi's Twitter handle was "very briefly compromised" — and stressed that his account "has been immediately secured," adding:
"In the brief period that the account was compromised, any tweet shared must be ignored."
As reported by CoinMarketCap Academy last week, Modi is due to make "the final call" on whether to ban cryptocurrencies in India — and it's possible this stunt will make him view Bitcoin in an even dimmer light.
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A Second Hack
To make matters worse, this is the second time that Modi's Twitter account has been hacked — and government officials have now launched a "full-scale investigation" into what happened.
Modi's Twitter account has more than 73 million followers. According to The Indian Express, Twitter will be asked why the account "was not flagged for a breach by its automated systems when someone else tried to log in."
Google is also expected to face tough questions because of how Blogspot, the blogging platform it owns, was used to promote the giveaway scam.
A Twitter representative told the news outlet that "it appears the account was not compromised due to any breach of Twitter's systems" — muddying the waters even further.
One of the worst Twitter hacks in memory took place in the summer of 2020, when 130 high-profile accounts were taken over in order to promote a Bitcoin scam.
Profiles belonging to Jeff Bezos, Bill Gates, Barack Obama, Joe Biden, Bill Gates, Warren Buffett, Kanye West and Kim Kardashian were affected.
Many ended up posting similar messages — promising people who sent Bitcoin to a particular address would end up getting twice as much back.
The 18-year-old "mastermind" of this hack ended up pleading guilty — and as part of a plea deal, is now serving a three-year jail sentence.
