Hackers have reportedly taken control of the X account belonging to Neil Innes, the late British comedian dubbed the ‘unofficial seventh member of Monty Python,’ and have been using it to bombard fans with a slew of Bitcoin-related spam.
As reported by comedy website Chortle, the account, which originally belonged to Innes, appears to have been commandeered by a user called @lukaxnft. Innes passed away in 2019 but despite this, the account has been pumping out Bitcoin-related charts, NFTs, and investment information.
The hijack was uncovered by another comedian, Dave Gorman, who says he first became suspicious when he started to notice crypto-related posts flooding his timeline despite having no interest in digital assets.
“’Scrolling through Twitter and I see this [a tweet about crypto] on my timeline,” he said. “I think, ‘That’s odd there’s no way I’d choose to follow this sort of crypto BS.’”
Gorman then detailed how he noticed that the offending account was also followed by a large number of comedians. “It’s also followed by dozens of comics,” he said. “That’s even odder. So I scroll back and find old conversations it was in. And it turns out it used to be the account of the amazing Neil Innes.”
The account has since been renamed again to @freexnft, and appears to remain active, much to Gorman’s disgust.
“He [Innes] died in 2019 and now this shyster’s got hold of his account, changed the name, and is using it to plug crypto stuff that is probably crooked,” he opined. “After all, if it was legit, you probably wouldn’t need to steal access to the account of a deceased comedy legend.
“I doubt @elonmusk and @twitter will do anything about it,” he continued, “but if you were a fan of Neil’s and were following @neilinnes you’re now probably following this twonk and you might want to at least undo that.”
Innes, who died from a heart attack in 2019, was famous for his work with the influential comedy troupe Monty Python and was a founding member of the Bonzo Dog Doo-Dah Band and Beatles parody group The Rutles.
