Skip to main content

Notable Twitter accounts hacked, posting links promoting free followers

twitter auto crops improve with ai
Twindesign/123RF
Buying followers on Twitter has always been seen as one of those shady, underground practices that’s easy to do, but frowned upon by the masses.

But that practice had seemingly gone mainstream early this morning, when accounts like @PlayStation, @Viacom, @XboxSupport, @NTSB, @TheNewYorker, @TheNextWeb, the Red Cross (@ICRC) and @Money had “started aggressively pushing ways to help you obtain more followers for free,” according to Engadget.

But upon further inspection through popular Twitter client Tweetdeck, it appears all of the tweets had been sent out via the Netherlands-based Twitter Counter (@thecounter), which is a tool that “provides statistics of Twitter usage and tracks over 14 million users … and sells featured spots on its website to people who want to gain more followers,” according to its site.

The tweets began rolling out with malicious links at around 1 a.m. Saturday, promoting various websites inviting users to get more followers just by clicking.

In addition to the companies and organizations listed above, the U.S. National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) was also affected, as well as some politicians and celebrities including Charlie Sheen, Lionel Messi, astronaut Leland Melvin, and Minnesota Governor Mark Dayton. A large number of other users were also affected but the number is unknown.

While the tweets promoting the follower-buying sites have since been deleted, a hack of the Twitter Counter service seems possible, but only affecting accounts linked to the tool.

Boris Veldhuijzen van Zanten, founder of Twitter Counter (as well as founder and CEO of notable site The Next Web), told Engadget that the company was “looking into the situation.”

As Engadget advised, the incident simply serves as an extra reminder to change your password often, make your passwords difficult to guess, don’t share it with anybody ever, and check any apps or services you might have linked purposefully or accidentally to your social media accounts. As was possible in this case, if one of them gets hacked, your account could be at risk, as well.

Editors' Recommendations

Harrison Kaminsky
Harrison’s obsession in the tech space originated in his father’s electronics store in Denville, New Jersey, where he…
Twitter says 130 accounts were targeted in massive Bitcoin hack
Twitter Bitcoin

Twitter has released more information about the major hack it suffered on Wednesday, July 15 that resulted in a large number of high-profile accounts tweeting messages as part of a Bitcoin scam.

In several tweets posted on Thursday evening, the company said that around 130 accounts had been targeted in the breach, which is thought to have been enabled after the hackers convinced a number of Twitter employees into giving access to the social media site’s systems.

Read more
FBI moves in to investigate Twitter’s massive Bitcoin hack
Twitter symbol photo. Credits: Twitter official.

The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) is now examining the major hack that hit Twitter on Wednesday, July 17, in a bid to find out who was behind the incident, the Wall Street Journal reports

Twitter accounts belonging to Barack Obama, Joe Biden, Bill Gates, Elon Musk, and Jeff Bezos, among other high-profile users of the microblogging service, were hit in a scam that involved a fake tweet encouraging followers to send payments to a Bitcoin wallet. It had some success, too, as data on Blockchain.com showed that more than $115,000 via 392 transactions was sent to the Bitcoin wallet posted in the messages.

Read more
How to secure your Twitter account
A girl with a hacked Twitter account

Twitter seems to be an easy target for hackers. In late 2019, Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey’s account was hacked and then used to send out racist and anti-Semitic retweets. In a strange turn of events that could only happen in topsy-turvy 2020, Twitter's competitor, Facebook, had their Twitter account  taken over by a hacker group called OurMine in February. More recently, dozens of major Twitter accounts were hacked in massive Bitcoin scam. That's only a few of the more high-profile hackings.

This news could leave a devout Twitter user a little nervous. Though there's no foolproof way to keep hackers at bay, you can make your account much more secure. Here's how to secure your Twitter account.

Read more