Elon Musk, Bill Gates, Apple, Other Major Twitter Accounts Hacked By Bitcoin Scammers

Strange tweets sent Wednesday from Tesla Inc TSLA CEO Elon Musk's official Twitter TWTR account and those of Apple Inc. AAPL, Uber Technologies Inc UBER and Microsoft Corporation MSFT co-founder Bill Gates appear to be the result of a hack promoting a bitcoin scam. 

Musk, Obama, Biden Targeted: The tweets from Musk's account said he would double any bitcoin payments sent to a published Bitcoin address. They have since been deleted. 

"You know I living giving back to my community," one tweet from Musk said. "I'm doubling all BTC payments sent to my address. You send $1,000 and I will send $2,000 back!" 

After sharing the bitcoin address, the tweet said: "Tell your family & friends! Only going on for 30 minutes." 

The bitcoin address used in Musk's tweet has been used for 272 transactions at last check, according to Blockchain.com. 

The hacks began at about 3 p.m. Wednesday, according to CNBC, and were ongoing at the time of publication, with rapper Kanye West, Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden and former President Barack Obama among the latest targets. 

"We are aware of a security incident impacting accounts on Twitter. We are investigating and taking steps to fix it. We will update everyone shortly," Twitter's support account tweeted at 5:45 p.m. 

Twitter shares were down 4.23% at $34.16 in Wednesday's after-hours session. 

Musk Targeted By Twitter Impersonators Before: Twitter often has problems with Musk impersonators responding to the CEO's tweets claiming bitcoin giveaways and other scams.

But this apparent scam comes directly from Musk's verified account.

Musk has posted tweets about the cryptocurrency Dogecoin in the past. 

Benzinga's Take: Musk has complained about Twitter's ability to control bots in the past. Now it appears hackers have gained access to Musk's account and are flooding Twitter with scam tweets.

You should never send money to anyone in this manner over the internet, even when it comes from a verified account, as it is almost always a scam. 

Dustin Blitchok contributed to this report. 

Screenshot from Twitter.