‘Elon Musk’ bitcoin giveaways continue to scam people on Youtube. Scammers have reportedly pulled in millions of dollars in bitcoin from people wanting to double their cryptocurrency. Some of them use bitcoin addresses containing the name Elon Musk, Spacex, or Telsa. Before sending money to a bitcoin address, check if it has been reported as an address used by scammers.
Elon Musk Bitcoin Giveaway Scam
The number of bitcoin scams using the name Elon Musk, Spacex, or Tesla has been growing. Videos promoting a scam claiming that Elon Musk is giving away 5,000 BTC or 10,000 BTC have been appearing regularly on Youtube. News.Bitcoin.com recently reported on this scam which asks people to send them bitcoin, promising to return twice as much BTC sent immediately. The scam pulled people in with an interview with Elon Musk and the recent Spacex launch.
The CEO of cyber-security firm Adaptiv, Justin Lister, has been tracking bitcoin sent to vanity addresses containing names such as Elon Musk, Telsa, or Spacex to promote BTC giveaway scams over the past month, Zdnet reported on Friday. Examples of such addresses are “1Musk…” or “1Elonmusk…”
He tracked down 66 addresses that have been reported to Bitcoinabuse.com, a public database of bitcoin addresses used by hackers and criminals. Using his research and data from the Bitcoin Abuse website, the news outlet found that a total of 214 BTC have been sent to the Elon Musk vanity addresses, which is more than $2 million at the current exchange rate. Since scammers do not just use vanity addresses, such as the one shown in the image above, the total amount they have raked in from this type of scam could be significantly more than $2 million.
Elon Musk is not the only celebrity being used to promote fake bitcoin giveaways. Others that have been used to promote BTC scams include Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos, Microsoft founder Bill Gates, former Google CEO Eric Schmidt, Apple cofounder Steve Wozniak, COINBASE CEO Brian Armstrong, Epic Games CEO Tim Sweeney, FUBU CEO Daymond John, and Rich Dad Poor Dad author Robert Kiyosaki.
It is generally unwise to send bitcoin to anyone claiming to double your BTC. If you come across a bitcoin scam address, you can report it to Bitcoinabuse.com. The site also lets you check whether a particular address has been reported as an address used by scammers, check report history, and monitor stolen bitcoin.
At the time of this writing, the Bitcoin Abuse website shows that there have been 115 reports in the last day, 680 reports in the last week, and 4,636 reports in the last month.
There is also a new website called Scam Alert, launched on Friday by popular blockchain monitor Whale Alert. You can use the site check if a certain bitcoin address has been reported as a scam address. The Scam Alert website explains: “Our goal is to make blockchain safer for everyone by tracking and exposing criminals who abuse blockchain for illegal activities.”
What do you think about Elon Musk bitcoin giveaway scams making millions? Let us know in the comments section below.
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Image Credits: Shutterstock, Pixabay, Wiki Commons, Youtube, Bitcoinabuse.com
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