This article is more than 1 year old

iPad scammers hack Kirstie Allsopp's Twitter

Posh property presenter pwned

iPad scammers managed to reach a huge potential audience last weekend after they took over a Twitter profile maintained by British TV presenter Kirstie Allsopp.

Allsopp, who fronts Channel 4 property programmes Location, Location and Kirstie's Homemade Home, was tipped off about the hack by her followers after the account spewed a series of out-of-character tweets.

The updates encouraged followers of the account to apply for free iPads, a trick designed to lure victims into completing a worthless survey that also attempts to hoodwink surfers into signing up to a £4.50 a week premium rate phone scam.

Allsopp has recovered the compromised KirstieMAllsopp account, changed her password and purged the offending tweets, but cached copies of the messages are preserved for posterity in a blog post by Sophos here.

It's unclear how Allsopp's account - which boasts 47,000 followers - came to be compromised. Possible mechanisms include phishing, password guessing or malware-based attacks.

The posh presenter is far from the first celebrity or public figure to be pwned by hackers on Twitter. Other victims have included Axl Rose, UK politician Ed Miliband and Britney Spears, whose multiple Twitter hack mishaps have made her something of a poster child for celebrity microblogging insecurity. ®

More about

TIP US OFF

Send us news


Other stories you might like