Cybercriminals used Elon Musk’s illustrious appearance for Live to con people out of just about $300k as of 11, May’21. The scam is the oldest trick by using fake accounts to the gambler in crypto for virtual giveaways.

Elon Musk has to come into existence at the weekend to briefly encourage his favourite cryptocurrency, Dogecoin. As it was shown that the value had dipped, it was the perfect opportunity for cyber criminals to use the various billionaires as a front for a con.

How does this scams work?

Many experts by knowing this kind of scam can still become innocent. As the reason that the profiles look genuine and at times have the blue Twitter verification tick. Publics are all the more subject to the idea that these “giveaways” are genuine.

However, in July, more than this- a sophisticated crypto Twitter scam came in headlines. The high-profile accounts of a figure of celebrities—together with Joe Biden, Elon Musk and Kim Kardashian—were hacked. Also, it was used by cyber criminals to endorse a fake Bitcoin giveaway scheme. In this scam, nearly $120,000 was sent in Bitcoin help to a fraudulent address.

Normally for the cheats, it has long used phoney celebrity confirmations to trick persons into sending them their crypto. Elon Musk, the world’s richest man and a Twitter loudmouth have commonly been used as a face for scams. In fact, in the last year, a Bitcoin account was observed as if it was owned by Elon Musk. The reason behind it was that his name in the address received $2 million value of Bitcoin in two months.

And more presently in March, a fake website imagining being the tech entrepreneur got sent $243,000 in the world’s largest crypto. The UK’s Financial Conduct Authority has recurrently warned that it’s common for criminals to use false celebrity endorsements. In social media, they frequently complimented with pictures of expensive goods. It is set for traps for the would-be investors.

Shivangi Mujumdar

CBW - External Analyst

INDIA