Imran Khan’s Instagram account hacked to advertise phoney Elon Musk $100 million crypto giveaway

The official Instagram account of cricketing legend and former Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan was hacked yesterday so as to promote a cryptocurrency rip-off.

An unauthorised submit and Instagram story briefly suggested Khan’s over seven million followers to go to a rip-off web site that provided an Elon Musk-endorsed “crypto giveaway” of $100 million.

To make the rip-off seem extra respectable, the submit was accompanied by a screenshot of a faked tweet claiming to come back from Tesla boss Musk, and an endorsement message that pretended to come back from Khan:

Thanks Elon Musk for 3 BTC. Go to the positioning and get cash. Hyperlink in profile bio

Within the story posted to Imran Khan’s hacked account, a screenshot purporting to indicate 3 bitcoin being transferred to him was displayed.

In fact, there is no such thing as a signal of the tweet on Elon Musk’s real Twitter account.  It seems to be the concoction of the scammers themselves, who can mock up a pretend tweet screenshot utilizing instruments discovered on any PC in mere seconds.

Elon Musk’s picture and title are generally exploited by on-line criminals eager to dupe the unwitting into falling for a cryptocurrency rip-off.  Musk’s monumental fame, fervent following within the crypto group, and common erratic behaviour seem like a great cocktail for these trying to lure the unwary into making an unwise determination.

Nonetheless, combining Musk’s title with these of different public figures with giant and dependable followings – resembling PTI get together chairman Imran Khan – opens up much more alternatives for scammers.

Clearly, there may be quite a lot of hurt that might be completed by having the social media accounts of excessive profile political leaders compromised – extra, most definitely, than the monetary harm that might be completed if followers have been duped into collaborating right into a cryptocurrency rip-off.

As an example, an attacker may use their entry to a social media account to submit misinformation to their tens of millions of followers, or level them in direction of a webpage that put in malware onto their computer systems.

Management of Imran Khan’s account was later confirmed to have been recovered.

Final week, the Twitter account of one other excessive profile determine in Indian politics, PTI Secretary Common and former Federal Planning Minister Asad Umar, was additionally hacked, and in Might the e-mail, Twitter, and Apple accounts of PTI get together determine Hammad Azhar have been additionally compromised.

It’s unclear whether or not all of those accounts have been hijacked utilizing the identical methods, however it clearly could be no dangerous factor if extra care was taken in securing accounts with sturdy, distinctive passwords and multi-factor authentication.

Final 12 months it was reported that Imran Khan’s cell phone could have been focused by the infamous Pegasus spy ware developed by controversial Israeli agency NSO Group.