In what is now a never-ending parable for the crypto industry, fraudsters continue to deceive new cryptocurrency victims through the promise of “Crypto Giveaways” that often associated with fake identity of highly influential people.
In a recent report by Whale Alert, the cryptocurrency transaction tracker confirmed that a whopping sum of 1.8526 BTC (17,589 USD) was paid to a fake Elon Musk giveaway scheme hosted at www.musk-bitcoin.net.
Musk-bitcoin.net Scam
As at the time of the report, additional information revealed that 24 people had made the total payment of 7.39274135 BTC (app. $70,211). This indicates that on the average, one victim has paid $2,925 into the fraudster’s address. That the address still holds the same as its final balance shows that address keeps receiving bitcoins without selling any.
It is also worth mentioning that four new transactions, averaging $2,925 each, were sent to the address at the time of writing, showing just how many more people are still hoping to get twice their deposit from the so-called ‘Elon Musk.’
Unfortunately, fake giveaway schemes seem to be one of the most profitable as fraudsters create big websites that claim to be subordinates of well-known companies, get an unsuspecting user to pay in money that can never be reversed back to them.
Time and again, Coinfomania has warned about the alarming rate of crypto-related Ponzi schemes and fake giveaways scam, with a majority of victims falling to fake videos on YouTube and incidents such as the recent Twitter hack.
In a related report, YouTube yesterday filed a counter-motion against a lawsuit by San-Francisco based fintech company, Ripple.
Ripple argued in its lawsuit that YouTube deliberately allows these fake videos on their platform, thereby damaging Ripple’s reputation and that of CEO Brad Garlinghouse. However, YouTube mentioned in its counter-motion that it had deleted the fake videos and that the person’s behind the scheme should be the target of the lawsuit, not YouTube.
