Barack Obama and Kanye West accounts hacked in Bitcoin Twitter scam

Targeted accounts included Microsoft founder Bill Gates and Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden.

High-profile Twitter accounts, including those of Barack Obama, Elon Musk and Kanye West, have been hacked as part of a widespread cryptocurrency scam.

The accounts, which have large Twitter followings, were simultaneously hacked on Wednesday evening and a message posted encouraging users to send 1,000 dollars (£794) to a Bitcoin address.

In return, users are promised that their money will be doubled and returned to them.

Kanye West’s Twitter account was hacked twice, with the same message posted (Twitter/PA)

“If you send $1,000, I will send back $2,000!

“Only doing this for the next 30 minutes! Enjoy.”

Targeted accounts included Microsoft founder Bill Gates, Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden and Amazon billionaire Jeff Bezos.

Kanye West’s account was hacked twice in the space of an hour with the same message posted.

Although many of the tweets were deleted within a few minutes, many are still available to view on Google. (Twitter/PA)

Most of the tweets were deleted within a number of minutes, but many had been retweeted thousands of times.

Twitter has said it is aware of the security incident.

In a statement posted online, it said: “We are investigating and taking steps to fix it. We will update everyone shortly.”

Users reported that those with verified accounts, marked by a blue tick, could not send tweets for a brief period – with those who tried shown an error message reading: “Something went wrong, but don’t fret – let’s give it another shot”.

The hacked messages were posted after several high-profile cryptocurrency companies’ Twitter accounts shared malicious links earlier on Wednesday.

Tyler Winklevoss, who founded cryptocurrency company Gemini alongside brother Cameron, tweeted earlier today: “WARNING: @Gemini’s twitter account, along with a number of other crypto twitter accounts, has been hacked.

“This has resulted in @Gemini, @Coinbase, @Binance, and @Coindesk, tweeting about a scam partnership with CryptoForHealth. DO NOT CLICK THE LINK! These tweets are SCAMS.”

His brother Cameron added: “ALL MAJOR CRYPTO TWITTER ACCOUNTS HAVE BEEN COMPROMISED.

“2FA / strong password was used for @Gemini account. We are investigating and hope to have more information shortly.”