Dozens of high-profile Twitter accounts hacked in bitcoin scam

Multiple high-profile businessmen, companies and celebrities have had their Twitter accounts hacked.

Rapper Kanye West, Tesla boss Elon Musk, Microsoft founder Bill Gates, Amazon founder Jeff Bezos, presidential candidate Joe Biden, former New York Mayor Mike Bloomberg and Silicon Valley giants Apple and Uber were among those hacked to share a bitcoin scam.

The tweets, with slight variations, say they are "giving back to the community".

"All bitcoin sent to the address below will be sent back doubled. If you send $1000, I will send back $2000. Only doing this for 30 minutes," the tweet posted to Biden's twitter account said, accompanied by a link to the scam.

Blockchain records show there have been more than 320 transactions to the link so far, with the number increasing every minute.

Reuters reports the scammers have already received more than NZ$152,000 worth of cryptocurrency.

Most of the tweets have since been deleted.

Twitter told Reuters it's looking into the matter, as the company's shares tumbled nearly 4 percent.