DISCLAIMER : EVERYTHING PRESENTED IN THIS ARTICLE AIMS TO WARN YOU OF A SCAM ON YOUTUBE. DO NOT SEND ANY OF YOUR BITCOIN TO THE ADDRESSES BELOW.
I would have preferred not to have written this article but I just came across something quite incredible. I was watching some videos on Youtube on various subjects when the algorithm offered me to watch a live broadcast relating to the launch of SpaceX.
I was even more intrigued when on the thumbnail of the video I saw that I could earn 5000 bitcoin by participating in a giveaway. Well, even if I define myself a bit like an idealist and a dreamer I doubt that someone will make such a huge giveaway.
Who would believe that such a thing is possible ?
Well at least 30,000 people if we refer to the number of spectators at the time when I came across the video. So I decided to write this article in order to warn you about scam. I will also show you that some people are really losing money because of this and a huge amount of money.
So this is what we can see by clicking on the video. It is simply a recording of the SpaceX project which has been re-uploaded in order to make it appear that everything is happening live. Of course this is not. The scam is simple, you are asked to send a certain number of bitcoin and in exchange you receive more. Simple right ?
So now how much have these scammers already earned ?
According to this article, more than $ 150,000 worth of bitcoin has already been stolen by these scammers. And all this in two days. We are two days after the publication of this article and the scam is still ongoing so I let you imagine how much money they have collected. You can see here and here how much they have fraudulently collected from two main addresses. As you can see the scam is still going.
Youtube Policy
But now, what I find crazy is that such scams can stay online that long. And, in my opinion, it reopens the debate about the moderation on YouTube. It is not uncommon to see questionable partnerships or even real scams being put at the top of the page because of the YouTube Sponsorship system.
And here are some questions.
Can we let people promote such scams? Wouldn't it be better to ban and strengthen algorithms aimed at removing this kind of content? Wouldn't this still restrict the rights of content creators?
What is certain is that as Elon Musk said scams are very common in the field of cryptocurrencies and this is confirmed. So be careful and educate yourself before making your payment / trading / investment transactions.
Thanks for reading, have a nice day, stay safe !
