The Twitter account of PayPal U.K. was hacked late Tuesday and used to post messages attacking the online payment processing company.
The messages, apparently from an angry customer, claimed the company "froze all my money for no reason". The hacker used the PayPal account to criticize in offensive language the eBay subsidiary, including for its poor security, and directed people to PayPal Sucks, a website that aims to expose "the nightmare of doing business" through PayPal.
The hack comes about a day after another high profile Twitter hack: the account of Fox News was compromised on Monday, with messages reporting falsely that U.S. President Barack Obama had been shot twice in an Iowa restaurant while campaigning.
PayPal confirmed in an e-mailed statement that one of its Twitter accounts in the U.K. was hacked. The Twitter account is run separately from the PayPal UK site and no customer data was affected, it added.
In a tweet after regaining control of the account, PayPal apologized and said it had the account under control. PayPal U.K. also deleted the messages from the hacker.
Twitter is being increasingly used by businesses, news outlets, governments, and politicians to communicate to people, and the two high-profile hacks this week will likely raise doubts about the security of the Twitter platform for these kind of communications.
Twitter did not respond to an e-mail requesting comment on the incident.
John Ribeiro covers outsourcing and general technology breaking news from India for The IDG News Service. Follow John on Twitter at @Johnribeiro. John's e-mail address is john_ribeiro@idg.com
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