Former Lions scrumhalf has Twitter account hacked

Former Scotland and British and Irish Lions scrumhalf Chris Cussiter has had his Twitter account hacked. Cusiter took to social media after finding out all his tweets had been deleted and his account had blocked hundreds of followers.

"My Twitter account appears to have been hacked. Unfollowed everyone and deleted everything. Any tips on how to restore much appreciated."

"It appears I’ve also blocked a few hundred accounts. This is fun."

The former Glasgow and Sale Sharks nine did see the funnier side of it, tweeting: "The request for Bitcoin was real though. That was me. Please send them over."

Cusiter is not the first rugby player to have his social media accounts hacked. All Blacks star Brodie Retallick's Instagram was recently hacked. Scammers demanded he pay over $1,000 dollars and requested money from his followers.

Springbok No.8 Duane Vermeulen also revealed that he was the target of an even more sinister plot in 2020. Criminals hacked into his email, PayPal and social media accounts and demanded ransom for their safe return.

He was tricked when an email purporting to be Instagram was sent to him saying he was in violation of their terms and conditions and had to log on to resolve the matter. Before he knew it the hackers had already attempted to use his PayPal account to make a number of purchases, but fortuitously the big man’s wife had his login details and could get into the account and stop the thieves.

Luckily for Cusiter, however, there doesn't seem to be any serious ill effects other than the deleting of posts and followers. Cusiter, who toured New Zealand with Clive Woodward’s squad in 2005 and won 70 test caps for Scotland before calling time on his career in 2016, has since become a whiskey retailer in Los Angeles and runs the website, lovescotch.com.