Hackers gained access to the social media accounts of Taylor Swift, a popular 25-year old singer. They tried baiting the public into sending three BTC (worth approximately $750) in exchange for revealing nude photos of the star.
Fans were later informed that the offending tweets, sent to over 51 million followers from her account, were removed. Twitter administrators were working on resetting her exclusive access to the account and banned the perpetrators from the network.
The hack was another blow for Swift, whose fans were recently disappointed when a radio station removed one of her songs from its Hottest 100 list.
The attackers asked her followers to send the funds to a customized address: 1Crimevxi4qnxhBjHT1kvcgkwaMqHkm4fS. Thus far, they have come up empty handed - the address has yet to receive a single transaction since the hack.
Likewise, past attempts to bait Bitcoiners in such schemes have come up fruitless (although perhaps the application of Bitcoin 2.0 to decentralized exchange may be useful in ensuring parties keep their end of the deal). In the alleged hacking of Satoshi Nakamoto ’s inbox, the blackmailer got but a sprinkle of his demands of 25 BTC to reveal private information.
