Crypto scams on YouTube use fake Elon Musk videos

Fake cryptocurrency endorsements continue to be used by malicious persons that want to steal cryptocurrencies from unsuspecting users. The fake endorsements featured the CEO of Tesla, Elon Musk and other popular figures in the crypto space.

A recent report by Bleeping Computer said that millions of dollars worth of cryptocurrencies had been stolen using these fake videos. Besides Musk, some of the videos also featured the CEO of Block, Jack Dorsey.

Millions of dollars stolen through fake crypto endorsements

The Sunday report said that the fake endorsement videos were used to promote scams promising investors double returns on their cryptocurrency investments. The videos were posted on YouTube, and they attracted tens of thousands of views, showing the large crypto investor base at risk of falling prey to the scam.

The Sunday report added that several YouTube channels were luring victims using edited videos of “The B Word” Conference that attracted leading Bitcoin whales and investors. Some of the videos posted early this year enabled the scammers to solicit hundreds of dollars from investors.

Some of these videos posted a link urging naïve investors to follow it. The link led to a fake website where the investors were urged to invest their money to benefit from fake giveaway promotions. The Bleeping Computer report showed that one of the channels linked to the scam had over a million followers.

Increased threat of YouTube scams

Scammers have been targeting the buzzing cryptocurrency sector using different social media channels. It has become nearly impossible for these scams to be stopped because fraudsters create new accounts and websites daily. Therefore, tracking the authenticity of these new websites each time is challenging.

The fraudsters have ways of making their scams look legitimate. They create false charts showing the new investors the amount of money that has been allegedly earned by early investors. However, this data is false and generated using JavaScript code.

In 2020, YouTube was sued by the CEO of Ripple, Brad Garlinghouse. Garlinghouse’s lawsuit said that YouTube failed to bring down fake videos using his name. Garlinghouse settled the lawsuit with YouTube in March last year, with the tech giant saying that it could not be held responsible for the videos posted on its platform by third parties.

Fake crypto giveaways have also been rampant on Twitter. Musk has vowed to get rid of these fake giveaways once his purchase process of Twitter is complete.

Your capital is at risk.

Read more:

• How to buy cryptocurrencies
• How to buy bitcoin