The verified Twitter account of the Ministry of Rural Development under the Indian government was allegedly hacked by scammers pretending to be Tesla CEO Elon Musk. Later, the account was restored, and the Ministry in a tweet said that it was the result of a 'technical glitch'. On January 28, scammers took over the account, changed the name of the account from the Ministry of Rural Development to Elon Musk, according to screengrabs of the compromised account provided by the Malware Hunter Team. https://twitter.com/malwrhunterteam/status/1486762119500636166 Several tweets were posted in a matter of a few hours. One of the tweets, now deleted, read "Je m'aple syrup'. This was an exact copy of what Musk tweeted from his real account, and the screengrabs show, that as a result, many people fell for the tweet from the compromised MRD account. It had around 30,000 likes and 3,400 retweets. There were also a few tweets that had a link attached to them. With a significant chunk of India's workforce still working from home, there has been a spurt in cyber attacks in India. As of today, India's National Cyber Security Strategy which has been in the pipeline since 2019, has still not been finalised. The proposed strategy will have a clause for claiming cyber insurance, which could help victims of cyber attacks. What is the Elon Musk scam that has cost victims over $2 million? In May 2021, the Federal Trade Commission said that scammers were posing as celebrities such as Elon Musk to perpetrate…
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Elon Musk impersonators target Ministry of Rural Development’s verified Twitter handle
Of late, there has been a rise in similar incidents where scammers pose as celebs to trick crypto enthusiasts on social media.
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