Scam uses Elon Musk’s name to fool people with $ 2 million worth of bitcoin

Complimentary cryptocurrency scams, including those impersonating Tesla and SpaceX boss Elon Musk, have been making the rounds for several years now. The latest trick up the scammers’ sleeves is to insert the name Musk into the Bitcoin address itself, which has helped them collect victims of over $ 2 million worth of bitcoin in the past two months.

To make their ploy seem more reliable, scammers use Bitcoin vanity addresses that embed a custom element or word in the address itself. In this case, it’s the name of the tech titan of South African origin: “1MossSEYstWetqTFn5Au4m4GFg7xJaNVN2” or “1Elon MuskSEYstWetqTFn5Au4m4GFg7xJaNVN2“

The criminals then ask people to send digital money to a bitcoin address with a promise to double the amount as part of a giveaway. However, as you may have guessed, the victim will never see any of their cryptocurrencies again.

Justin Lister, CEO of cybersecurity firm Adaptiv, which has been tracking bitcoin addresses that misused Musk’s name over the past month, said he was able to track down 66 such addresses. Speaking to ZDNet, he claimed that he was able to identify addresses with the help of BitcoinAbuse, a public database of bitcoin addresses used by scammers, hackers and various other cybercriminals. According to Lister, the 66 addresses have received over 201 Bitcoins since their creation in April 2020.

RELATED READING: High profile Twitter accounts hacked to promote Bitcoin scam

ZDNet was able to identify 67 others^th address, which received another 13.9 Bitcoins, bringing the total to around 215 Bitcoins. Based on today’s exchange rate, this equates to $ 2.03 million.

One of the ways these gift scams are organized is through hijacked YouTube accounts with a large number of followers. These accounts are then renamed to take on the guise of a celebrity or brand to bolster their credibility, and a live stream is launched citing an important milestone as the reason for the event. One such event occurred recently, when SpaceX became the first private company to launch astronauts into orbit.

Although YouTube is one of the most popular channels through which these scams are organized, it is by far not the only one. Cybercriminals are known to use other social media to spread their scams, including Twitter, which they use to amplify the reach of their scams using bot networks.

Giveaway scams that abuse Elon Musk’s name or companies, as well as other well-known figures like Bill Gates, are nothing new. They even angered Musk himself, who took to Twitter earlier this year to share his feelings on the issue.

The cryptocurrency level on Twitter is reaching new levels. That’s no good.

– Elon Musk (@elonmusk) February 1, 2020

ESET cybersecurity specialist Jake Moore recommends doing your due diligence if you are considering joining: “I suggest all users to run background checks as much as possible, including reviews and then further research on the account itself first It’s not about “if it’s too good to be true, it probably is,” it’s just about not being too quick to click. “