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 , 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, 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.