5 ms·

It is time to hold Twitter criminally negligent for crypto scams on its site

8 points by hamiltonians 6y ago

This is ridiculous. 3 verified accounts are scamming here https://twitter.com/chamath/status/1357084550522830849 This is like a repeat of the July 20th twitter hack. Tons of verified accounts are being hacked everyday to promote a crypto fraud and twitter cannot do anything. This is after it has been going on like this for 3 years. A lawmaker needs to demand twitter make an effort to stop these scams. Fraud is not protected speech. Crypto fraud is a crime so why is it tolerated Edit: 5 verified accounts have been hacked in the past 2 hours alone: https://twitter.com/zacgrotz/with_replies https://twitter.com/GerronJordan/with_replies https://twitter.com/runner_ross/with_replies https://twitter.com/samhilliard25/with_replies https://twitter.com/WeatherLauren/with_replies This is similar to the july hack yet no media coverage

lumpa 6y ago
Can you post a screenshot showing the three verified accounts involved?
- hamiltonians 6y ago
  you can see it here https://twitter.com/zacgrotz/with_replies https://twitter.com/zacgrotz/with_replies https://twitter.com/GerronJordan/with_replies https://twitter.com/GerronJordan/with_replies https://twitter.com/runner_ross/with_replies https://twitter.com/runner_ross/with_replies and a 4th one https://twitter.com/samhilliard25/with_replies https://twitter.com/samhilliard25/with_replies 4 in less than 2 hours. Presumably, dozens of these are backing hacked daily. and 5th one https://twitter.com/WeatherLauren/with_replies https://twitter.com/WeatherLauren/with_replies
  - lumpa 6y ago
    Thank you. I'd like to offer more of a content description: Verified Twitter user￳￳ @GerronJordan uses avatar and screen name from Ch￳a￳m￳a￳￳￳t￳h￳ ￳Pa￳I￳hi￳a￳pt￳￳iya (@chamat) to post clear scam: ATTENTION. I have decided to hold a special event and share this. Go to chamath-sxxxxl . com Remove extra spaces! The x'ed out word is social if you want to investigate. https://mobile.twitter.com/GerronJordan/status/1357085137519874048 https://mobile.twitter.com/GerronJordan/status/1357085137519...
michaelmrose 6y ago
Would you say the same thing about email providers who have been dealing with the same thing for ages? I think whether they could do more to try to identify scams and suspend accounts that appear to be used in scams is separate from whether they ought to be legally responsible. Generally if I send you Nigerian scam email your email provider will probably TRY to block it but actually holding your email provider instead of me accountable for you getting scammed will be a non starter. I think we ought to treat this situation as nearly identical.
- hamiltonians 6y ago
  not really. Email companies and ISPs have made great strides in stopping spam but the crypto spam and hacks of verified accounts persists and is as bad now as it was 3 years ago. I hardly get any email spam. Just in the past hour 4 verified accounts were hacked, so probably 30+ get hacked daily. This suggests weak password hashing, poor security standards.
  - michaelmrose 6y ago
    Most of time when you get "hacked" nobody broke into twitter and gained access to your account instead SOMETHING got hacked often a trivial low value target of little worth and then either that hacker or someone looking for password leaks sees that someone with the email bob@gmail.com had a password of hunter2 and immediately tries that email and password combination on everything of value. The security fail in that situation is that the person used the same password on mypointlesswebsite.com as they did on twitter. Alternatively individual devices may be compromised in all sorts of ways at which point their credentials are stolen and sold like cheap goods at a flea market. All of this is vastly easier than breaking into twitter. You believe that the number of twitter accounts being taken over indicates bad security practices at twitter but in fact a ton of email accounts are taken over you just aren't aware because hacked email accounts communicate person to person whereas twitter accounts especially of important and popular people are one to many. Can we identify when a twitter handle has been taken over? Maybe so but honestly some responsibility has to fall on users.
lumpa 6y ago
Either has been resolved or the scammers are trying to keep a low profile: scammy tweets removed, avatars reset.

8 points by hamiltonians 6y ago

lumpa 6y ago

Can you post a screenshot showing the three verified accounts involved?

hamiltonians 6y ago
you can see it here https://twitter.com/zacgrotz/with_replies https://twitter.com/zacgrotz/with_replies https://twitter.com/GerronJordan/with_replies https://twitter.com/GerronJordan/with_replies https://twitter.com/runner_ross/with_replies https://twitter.com/runner_ross/with_replies and a 4th one https://twitter.com/samhilliard25/with_replies https://twitter.com/samhilliard25/with_replies 4 in less than 2 hours. Presumably, dozens of these are backing hacked daily. and 5th one https://twitter.com/WeatherLauren/with_replies https://twitter.com/WeatherLauren/with_replies
- lumpa 6y ago
  Thank you. I'd like to offer more of a content description: Verified Twitter user￳￳ @GerronJordan uses avatar and screen name from Ch￳a￳m￳a￳￳￳t￳h￳ ￳Pa￳I￳hi￳a￳pt￳￳iya (@chamat) to post clear scam: ATTENTION. I have decided to hold a special event and share this. Go to chamath-sxxxxl . com Remove extra spaces! The x'ed out word is social if you want to investigate. https://mobile.twitter.com/GerronJordan/status/1357085137519874048 https://mobile.twitter.com/GerronJordan/status/1357085137519...

michaelmrose 6y ago

Would you say the same thing about email providers who have been dealing with the same thing for ages? I think whether they could do more to try to identify scams and suspend accounts that appear to be used in scams is separate from whether they ought to be legally responsible. Generally if I send you Nigerian scam email your email provider will probably TRY to block it but actually holding your email provider instead of me accountable for you getting scammed will be a non starter. I think we ought to treat this situation as nearly identical.

hamiltonians 6y ago
not really. Email companies and ISPs have made great strides in stopping spam but the crypto spam and hacks of verified accounts persists and is as bad now as it was 3 years ago. I hardly get any email spam. Just in the past hour 4 verified accounts were hacked, so probably 30+ get hacked daily. This suggests weak password hashing, poor security standards.
- michaelmrose 6y ago
  Most of time when you get "hacked" nobody broke into twitter and gained access to your account instead SOMETHING got hacked often a trivial low value target of little worth and then either that hacker or someone looking for password leaks sees that someone with the email bob@gmail.com had a password of hunter2 and immediately tries that email and password combination on everything of value. The security fail in that situation is that the person used the same password on mypointlesswebsite.com as they did on twitter. Alternatively individual devices may be compromised in all sorts of ways at which point their credentials are stolen and sold like cheap goods at a flea market. All of this is vastly easier than breaking into twitter. You believe that the number of twitter accounts being taken over indicates bad security practices at twitter but in fact a ton of email accounts are taken over you just aren't aware because hacked email accounts communicate person to person whereas twitter accounts especially of important and popular people are one to many. Can we identify when a twitter handle has been taken over? Maybe so but honestly some responsibility has to fall on users.

lumpa 6y ago

Either has been resolved or the scammers are trying to keep a low profile: scammy tweets removed, avatars reset.