Since Elon Musk’s arrival as the new owner of Twitter, verified users have reported an influx of phishing attempts via email and on the platform itself. Elon Musk has fired Twitter’s board to become the sole director and wants to initiate a big change to the way the platform handles verified users. Musk wants to offer the verification status for $8 per month to retain the status and be enrolled in the site’s new premium service, Blue. The initiative has been seen as a way to make more money from the platform that has been under-performing as of late.
The publicity that came from the announcement has already attracted cyber-criminals, verified users say. Several users posted screenshots of phishing emails they had received from an illegitimate domain pretending to be Twitter’s contact center. The emails state that the user must confirm their identity or risk losing the status. Clicking on the malicious link to verify identity will take the user to a phishing page that requests certain account details that can later be leveraged by the attackers to hijack accounts.
