Gates, Musk and Other Top Tech Figures Get Twitter Accounts Hacked

SAN FRANCISCO — Some of the biggest names in politics, entertainment and technology, including Joseph R. Biden Jr., Kanye West, Bill Gates and Elon Musk, appeared to have had their Twitter accounts hacked on Wednesday.

The accounts sent messages related to cryptocurrency, with most of the messages promising to double the money of anyone who sent Bitcoin to a specific cryptocurrency wallet. Within hours of the tweets appearing, nearly 300 people had fallen for the scam, sending more than $100,000 to the wallet. Many of the tweets were quickly removed.

The messages were an iteration of a long-running scam in which hackers pose as public figures on Twitter, and promise to match or even triple any funds that are sent to their Bitcoin wallets. In the past, hackers have created fake accounts to try to convince users that the funds will be going to public figures like Mr. Musk or Mr. Gates. The attacks Wednesday were the first time that the real accounts of public figures were used in the scam.

Twitter sent out a message saying that it was investigating the problem and looking to fix it.