A Florida teen hacked the Twitter accounts of prominent politicians, celebrities and technology moguls to scam people around globe out of more than $100,000 in Bitcoin, authorities said Friday.
The 17-year-old boy was arrested earlier Friday in Tampa, where the Hillsborough State Attorney's Office will prosecute the case. He faces 30 felony charges, according to a news release.
The hacks led to bogus tweets being sent out July 15 from the accounts of Barack Obama, Joe Biden, Mike Bloomberg and a number of tech billionaires including Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos, Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates and Tesla CEO Elon Musk. Celebrities Kanye West and his wife, Kim Kardashian West, were also hacked.
The tweets offered to send US$2,000 for every US$1,000 sent to an anonymous Bitcoin address.