Cricket South Africa Hacked: Falls Victim To Bitcoin Scam

South Africa’s national cricket organization fell victim to hackers gaining access to their Twitter account  Indian Express reported on Jan. 14. Cricket South Africa (CSA), tweeted its alleged participation in the scheme in the early morning to its 1 million followers.

“And… we’re back! Apologies to all our Twitter followers who were affected by the hack overnight. We are back in control & ready to bring you what promises to be an even more eventful Day 4 of Test cricket. Thank you to our friends at the @ICC for your assistance this morning.”

The Tweet that was in question during the hack claimed that the organization had begun a partnership with Luno, a UK-based cryptocurrency wallet and exchange, through which users could win a prize worth 20 BTC (R985 600,37).

The now-deleted tweet included a Bitcoin address to which those wishing to be involved should send a 0.01 BTC. The Tweet remained  active for around 5 hours before being removed after Cricket South Africa (CSA) subsequently wrote in a follow-up tweet after confirming their Twitter was back under their control.

World cricket body ICC had acknowledged the account was compromised and asked the users not to engage with the Twitter handle until fixed and erroneous tweets deleted.

“Please be aware that the @OfficialCSA Twitter account has been compromised. Our friends in South Africa are working hard to resolve the situation quickly. Please do not click on any links or engage with the account until such time as this is rectified,”

In a separate Tweet, Luno also confirmed the news was not authentic, stating:

“We distance ourselves from this tweet that is going around. We have not partnered with (CSA).”

The Bitcoin address used in the rogue lottery contained a balance of 0.02 BTC ($70) at press time, suggesting only two Twitter users might have sent funds.

Always practice caution and be on the lookout for cryptocurrency scams.

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