Twitter has confirmed that the account of Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s personal website was hacked this week, a verified account with 2.5 million followers that posts primarily in Hindi. The hack was used to post cryptocurrency scams similar to the massive hack of verified accounts that occurred earlier this year.
Reuters reports that Twitter has confirmed that an account associated with Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s personal website and app was hacked with a number of tweets asking the account’s followers to donate cryptocurrency to a relief fund. The account, @narendramodi_in has 2.5 million followers and often tweets in the Hindi language.
The hack comes just shortly after a number of high-profile Twitter accounts were also hacked in July, for which a 17-year-old from Florida has been charged. Twitter says that it is aware of the hack of Modi’s account and has taken steps to secure it from hackers.
“We are actively investigating the situation. At this time, we are not aware of additional accounts being impacted,” a Twitter spokesperson stated. Modi’s office has yet to comment on the hack.
The account has over 2.5 million followers and is the official account for Modi’s personal website www.narendramodi.in and the Narendra Modi mobile application. Modi’s personal Twitter account which has 61 million followers was unaffected by the hack.
The tweets from the Modi website’s account asked followers to donate to the PM National Relief Fund using cryptocurrency, and have since been taken down.
The hack could be similar in method to the massive Twitter hack earlier this year, or potentially could be the work of Chinese hackers based on the recent clashes between the two countries.
In July, a 17-year-old teenager named Graham Clark was arrested under suspicion of masterminding a Twitter hack that saw the accounts of multiple high-profile users hijacked and used to promote a Bitcoin scam that generated approximately $100,000 for the hackers. The accounts hacked included those of Joe Biden, Bill Gates, Elon Musk, Jeff Bezos, and Barack Obama.
Hillsborough State Attorney Andrew Warren filed 30 felony charges against the teenager for “scamming people across America” in relation to the Twitter hack. The teenager is facing one count of organized fraud, 17 counts of communications fraud, one count of fraudulent use of personal information worth over $100,000 or 30 or more victims, 10 counts of fraudulent use of personal information and one count of access to computer or electronic devices without authority.
Lucas Nolan is a reporter for Breitbart News covering issues of free speech and online censorship. Follow him on Twitter @LucasNolan or contact via secure email at the address lucasnolan@protonmail.com