A 19-year-old who maintains multiple Twitter accounts that use FAA data to track the flight pans of private jets belonging to rich folk and celebrities, including Jeff Bezos and Bill Gates, told Elon Musk that $5,000 wasn't enough to entice him to take down @ElonJet, which has 265,000 followers. He wants a Tesla 3, or the cash equivalent. So far, Musk hasn't accepted the offer.
From Protocol:
The account's popularity appears to have scared Musk. "I don't love the idea of being shot by a nutcase," he told Sweeney in their DM conversation.
The conversation continued for a few more messages. Musk asked Sweeney how much he made off the Twitter accounts, which Sweeney said was no more than $20 a month. Then Elon Musk made his own offer: $5,000 to delete the account and help the billionaire keep "crazy people" from tracking his location. Sweeney told Musk to add another 0. "Any chance to up that to $50k? It would be great support in college and would possibly allow me to get a car maybe even a Model 3."
Musk said he'd think about it. But so far, he hasn't paid Sweeney a dime, and the account is still running. Sweeney says he's okay with getting ghosted. He's benefited a lot from @ElonJet and the other accounts, he said: He's gained social media followers, learned how to code and even scored a part time job at UberJets as an application developer. Better yet, the self-described Elon Musk "fan" got to have a conversation with a man he's looked up to for years.