Don’t leave an “L” shape on your forehead. If a celebrity sees on her Twitter, for example, that he sells 10 of her MacBooks for about $600 each, you can be assured that the celebrity’s account was hacked. If the account belongs to his 90’s band, Smash Mouth, which is popular on the internet.

Over the past few months, a hacker or group of hackers has been stealing influential and high-profile accounts.Exclusively Mashable First report About last week’s hack.

Essentially, once the hackers have access to your account, they start sharing scams offering brand new MacBooks at well below retail prices. Mashable heard from people who fell for scams after seeing offers from users they followed and trusted for a long time without knowing their accounts had been hacked. Victims then transfer money through peer-to-peer payment services such as Zelle, Cashapp, and Apple Pay, which offer no buyer protection or refunds.

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On the day our report was published, hackers contacted the article’s author through a Twitter account they had just created. hacked(opens in new tab) A few hours ago.

“I’ll hack you next,” said the hacker. direct message(opens in new tab) From Smash Mouth’s Twitter account.

“Your two-step is not a problem😂,” they said in a follow-up, referring to two-factor authentication, a security step that makes unauthorized access to your account more difficult. Twitter, under the leadership of Elon Musk, off Same-day two-factor authentication via text message for Twitter users, unless they have paid for Twitter Blue subscriptions.

Shortly after these messages, Smash Mouth’s Twitter account deleted the MacBook scam tweet and published a new post saying the band had regained access to the account.

“I finally got my account back,” tweeted @SmashMouth. “Fuck those hackers”

But it wasn’t. That tweet was also from a hacker.

A hacker posing as Smash Mouth claimed the band had their account back. they didn’t.
Credit: Mashable screenshot

“Page is still hacked” murmured(opens in new tab) Ron Xepoleas from Smash Mouth’s management. “This is not a Smash Mouse post.”

Mashable contacted Xepoleas and explained that this was the second time their Smash Mouth account had been hacked.And it’s very likely that it’s by the same hacker, too. report(opens in new tab) Checkmarks can be lost if you receive a DM from your Smash Mouth account asking you to visit their Twitter page to verify your Twitter account. Of course, the page was a fake phishing page set up to steal your information. The October DM looks exactly like the DM we reported earlier, which is being used today by hackers to steal accounts. The only difference is that the hackers have moved to her URL on her new website.

Xepoleas explained that he fell for the hack the first time and clicked on the link himself. However, it is unclear how the hackers gained access to the accounts again this year.

When Smash Mouth was first hacked, it was just days before Elon Musk officially acquired Twitter, so there was a delay in getting the account back. It took him over a month before someone on Twitter helped.

And unfortunately for Smash Mouth, the Twitter employee who helped them last time was fired by Musk in the latest round of Twitter layoffs last month.

“All we know is that Elon has been hacked twice and lost over 40,000 followers since he took over.

At the time of publication, the Smash Mouth account was still hacked.

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Since Mashable’s first report, we’ve heard from many people sharing stories about other hacked accounts. He also contacted Twitter about the issue, and multiple accounts were hacked in the past week. Many of these accounts are still hacked, active, and fraudulent users.

Rapper Action Bronson’s account hacked(opens in new tab) And it pushed back the “10 MacBook” scam last November.

Comedian Bobby Lee’s Twitter account @BobbyLeeLive was also hacked that month. beginning(opens in new tab) On November 15th of last year, I tweeted a “10 MacBook” scheme. In fact, his account seems to have been hacked even now, more than four months later.

Last year, many of his fans were quick to notice a tweet with hacked accounts and screenshots of “10 MacBooks” selling for $600.

“Hello Twitter family!” reads November’s tweet. “I have 10 MacBooks, personally signed by me. Available for $600 with free shipping. First come, first served, all proceeds go to charity. If you’re interested, Open my DMS.”

Screenshot of the “10 MacBooks” scam tweeted from Bobby Lee’s account in November 2022.
Credit: Mashable screenshot

If that message looks familiar, it’s because it’s the exact same tweet posted to the hacked account. duck dynastyJace Robertson, America’s PerspectiveAccording to Mashable’s last report on the matter, David Dayen and Winnie Wong of Bernie Sanders’ 2020 presidential campaign. It looks like the same tweet was posted on every account that was hacked.

over the next few years Month(opens in new tab)Bobby Lee’s account is Continue(opens in new tab) Posting tweets that try to trick your followers. Hundreds of other Twitter users (including others) influential(opens in new tab) The Twitter account reported Lee’s hacked account to Twitter. However, the company did not respond.

Most of the fraudulent tweets on Bobby Lee’s account have disappeared from the platform. It is unclear whether the scammers deleted the missing tweets or if the tweets were automatically deleted due to a large number of users reporting specific tweets. However, it doesn’t appear that Twitter specifically intervened, as the fraudulent tweets from February are still appearing on the account.

Hacks keep coming

Beloved children’s singer Rafi Kavokian targeted(opens in new tab) by these hackers earlier this week.

Raffi told Mashable that she received a direct message from Kyiv Independent journalist Asami Terashima. However, Terashima’s account is hacked. And, oddly enough, the Raffi scammers changed Terashima’s profile name to look like the account of controversial cryptocurrency founder and indicted Justin Sun.(opens in new tab) In fraud by the SEC just days later.

A DM sent to Raffi from Terashima’s hacked account contained the same DM message linking to a phishing page disguised as the official Twitter site. The URL used this time is “security-twitter.com(opens in new tab)“Sent from Winnie Wong’s hacked account on the same domain we reported last time.

A screenshot of a phishing page used by scammers to steal accounts.
Credit: Mashable screenshot

Kyiv Independent senior editor Oleksiy Sorokin confirmed that access to Terashima’s account was restored.

“Also, thank you @elonmusk and @TwitterSupport for removing basic safety features,” he tweeted. “well done.”

While Raffi was able to avoid the hack, others weren’t so lucky.

On Thursday night, actress Rachel Zegler’s Twitter account began posting tweets of a “10 MacBook” scam. This time around, hackers have deployed new means to hide the scam. They first made her Zegler account private so only current followers could see her tweets. This makes it more difficult for outside parties, such as reporters who may be familiar with the scam, to track down hacked accounts and alert fans.

as of friday, Shazam! The actress’s account has been unlocked.Tweets from accounts claimed(opens in new tab) While it’s worth noting that Zegler has regained control, it’s worth noting that a Smash Mouth account once falsely claimed that its rightful owner had regained access.

Zegler plus a string of famous drag queens such as Gottmik RuPaul’s Drag Race It was hacked again this week, tweeting a “10 MacBook” scam.

Of course, hacking and phishing scams are nothing new or unique to social media websites. However, all of the hacked users we spoke to pointed out that the lack of response from Twitter itself after the Elon Musk acquisition was nothing they had experienced on previous platforms. doing.

Twitter plans to delete The opportunities for crooks to impersonate celebrities only increase as they receive verification badges from all influential and prominent users who do not pay.

Mashable reached out to Twitter for comment. The company’s press emails auto-replyed with a poop emoji.

Ella Irwin, Twitter’s head of trust and safety, responded publicly to a user who asked about Mashable’s initial report on the issue on Twitter on March 18.

“We don’t know what kind of DMs we got, but we’ll look into Matt’s account compromise report and any others we’ve been notified of,” Irwin said. murmured(opens in new tab)“I do not automatically believe that Matt’s account compromise is directly related to other accounts.”

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Twitter’s ’10 Macbooks’ hacker continues to run amok, scamming on the platform

hey now you’re an all star

you may be walking in the sun

Hacks keep coming

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