Barack Obama and Kanye West accounts hacked in Bitcoin Twitter scam

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.

The message read: "I am giving back to my community due to Covid-19! All Bitcoin sent to my address below will be sent back doubled.

"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.

A number of company accounts, including that of Apple and Uber, were also hacked with the message posted.

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."

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."