Elon Musk offers teen $7k to stop Twitter account tracking his private jet

The Tesla billionaire reached out to a teenager with a hefty cash offer after realising the tech-savvy 19-year-old was tracking his plane.

Tesla founder Elon Musk offered to pay a tech-savvy teenager $US5000 ($A7110) to shut down an account that kept tabs on his private jet due to concerns about his personal safety.

The billionaire reached out to the 19-year-old college student, Jack Sweeney, last November to express concern about a Twitter account he runs called @ElonJet, the New York Post reported.

The Twitter account provides regular updates on flights of well-known figures by using publicly available data, according to direct messages reviewed by the New York Post and first reported by Protocol.

“Can you take this down? It is a security risk,” Musk wrote to him in a direct message on Twitter dated November 30.

Elon Musk offered money for the account to go. Picture: Brendan Smialowski/AFP

The pair exchanged several more messages, with Musk pressing for details on how Mr Sweeney set up the bots and what he earned by operating them.

Eventually, Musk offered $US5000 ($A7110) to delete the account.

“I don’t love the idea of being shot by a nutcase,” Musk said.

Mr Sweeney counter-offered at $US50,000 ($A71,110), telling Musk the money would be “great support in college and would possibly allow me to get a car maybe even a Model 3,” according to Protocol.

Jack Sweeney is the brains behind the Twitter account. Picture: Supplied

Musk said he would consider the offer, but later said it didn’t “feel right” to pay to shut down the account.

Eventually, he stopped responding.

Tesla representatives did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

Tesla reportedly dissolved its PR team last year.

When reached for comment, Mr Sweeney said it was “awesome, but kinda scary” to receive a DM from Musk.

The messages between Elon Musk and Jack Sweeney. Picture: Supplied

If you want to complain to someone tell the ICAO to make a more privacy-focused ADS-B system. Taking down my account won't fix the issue, my code is open-sourced others said they would recreate it anyway.

— Elon Musk's Jet (@ElonJet) January 18, 2022

He added that he would like to work for one of Musk’s companies in the future.

Musk is one of the world’s most recognisable business leaders.

He’s also one of the world’s richest people, with a personal net worth of more than $US240 billion ($A340 billion) as of Thursday, according to Forbes.

The Tesla founder recently expressed concern about accounts tracking his travel.

Earlier this month, Musk addressed the issue on Twitter after one of his followers, a Tesla investor, apologised for sharing a post claiming the billionaire planned to travel to Berlin, Germany.

While the reports about the timing of Musk’s trip proved to be incorrect, the billionaire noted that accounts tracking his travel were “becoming a security issue.”