Not just journalist Barkha Dutt, verified YouTube accounts belonging to well known Indian personalities have been a victim of recent hack where the accounts are taken over to host Tesla-related content and perpetrate crypto-related scams.
Apart from Barkha Dutt's Mojo Story account, accounts of comedian Tanmay Bhat and Aishwarya Mohanraj were also compromised in this attack. The accounts of Mojo Story, Bhat and Mohanraj accounts have all been restored.
When the accounts were hacked, original videos hosted on these accounts were removed by the threat actor. However, after their recovery, the deleted videos have been restored.
On June 5 evening, Bhat and Mohanraj's accounts which were still compromised, were hosting Elon Musk- and Tesla-related content and livestreams. The comment section of these livestreams had instructions on crypto related investments, possibly scams.
Moneycontrol has reached out to Google with specific queries in this regard and the post will be updated when a response is received.
This is not the first time that Elon Musk or Tesla themed hacks had targeted Indian entities. Last year, verified Twitter account of the Ministry of Rural Development was compromised by scammers pretending to be Tesla CEO Elon Musk. The scammers took over the account, changed the name of the account from the Ministry of Rural Development to Elon Musk.
In 2021, the US' Federal Trade Commission (FTC) warned against crypto-related scams that were being pushed in the name of well known celebrities.
"...Others pretend to be celebrities — like a would-be Elon Musk — doing giveaways with claims of multiplying any cryptocurrency you send. Scammers also use online dating sites to sweet-talk people into bogus crypto investments in the name of love," an advisory by FTC read.
According to the Verge, similar hacks also affected social media accounts of US President Joe Biden, former President Barack Obama and others.
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