The internet has pushed the whole world into its phones and laptops. With that, bad actors came with the malicious intent of luring users to a fraudulent website or link. Even for the most tech-savvy person, the distinction between what is legitimate and what is not is not always a black and white case.
With Internet 2.0 and Bitcoin hysteria today, the list of scams is now much longer, a list that can bring down even the smartest.
Let's take a look at the popular American video sharing platform, YouTube, and the Bitcoin scams that have operated it. Here, victims are regularly forced to send a small amount of crypto - currency to the scammer after falling into hoaxes disguised as famous crypto figures.
While this type of malicious content was once very popular on Twitter, it has now moved to YouTube. The common method of executing this not-so-perfect crime is usually to compromise existing accounts [even the most verified] with a large follower base to give it an air of legitimacy, while changing the image to one with famous people. and / or organizations.
Here are a few cases that have hit the headlines recently,
A popular YouTube channel, TopTenz, with more than 1.6 million subscribers on board, was hijacked in April this year and renamed " Coinbase Pro English". After that, the scammer continued to broadcast a live session of an alleged AMA with Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong, who was actually old footage. In fact, the flow encouraged viewers to send Bitcoin , promising them a massive gift of 5,000 BTC in return.
The flow lasted more than 12 hours and, according to the blockchain explorer, some viewers who were lured to make the payment were tricked by a total of 7.2 BTC .
Ripple sues YouTube after scammers pretend to be Brad Garlinghouse
Blockchain giant Ripple has filed a lawsuit accusing YouTube of its inability to deactivate fraudulent accounts and ignore complaints of accounts that maliciously promoted fake gifts by creating fake accounts Ripple and CEO Brad Garlinghouse as bait to encourage viewers to send thousands of dollars in XRP .
Scammers have promised a nonexistent award 5 million XRP back. What was more damaging here is that YouTube also assigned a "verification badge" to a pirated channel that proudly displayed the photo of Garlinghouse as a profile picture. This allowed the scam to proliferate, although the platform completely ignored calls to delete the video.
Source: YouTube
Recently, just a week after the blockchain firm took legal action against YouTube in the northern district of California, the video platform suspended Ripple CTO David Schwartz's account for "identity theft". The executive chain, which also goes by the online nickname “Joel Katz”, has been active for years, which is why this development was interesting given the timing of legal proceedings and the suspension of the account.
According to ”xrplorer”, XRP owners had sent more than 8.5 million XRP in 2019-2020 to known fake drops and scams on YouTube.
Bill Gates' YouTube ' Bitcoin giveaway'
Associating a big name to attract viewers has become the common norm in fraudulent gifts and fraudulent airdrops. Another big scam was Bill Gates' “ Bitcoin gift ” on YouTube, where a malicious actor hijacked several YouTube accounts and renamed them to various Microsoft brands, broadcast a Ponzi scam live to all viewers, posing as a message from the former CEO of the company. Bill Gates.
Elon Musk ” Bitcoin Contest ”
Another public figure whose name was abused in another cryptocurrency scam was technician Elcho Musk, after a chain pretending to be him claimed that SpaceX and Musk were distributing 5,000 BTC . The YouTube video featured the launch of SpaceX on May 30, in collaboration with NASA, among other projects, was used to make viewers believe the program. Below the video was a BTC URL and address where viewers were encouraged to send their cryptos.
Source: YouTube
According to reports, one of the wallet addresses had recorded 85 transactions containing 11.25 BTC , while another had 37 transactions with a total of 5.51 BTC . While most of the hacked accounts were removed, we were still left with 146 views at the time of writing.
Online identity theft
Content creation and production are some of the most lucrative spaces in the world today. Despite many new emerging platforms, YouTube remains without a doubt the most popular of all. Winning with such a popular video hosting service is quite easy. It is a 45/55 split for all content creators who choose to monetize their content through it.
While 45% of all content creator's video ads are retained by Google, the rest goes to the creator. While making money is not an easy task, with an ever-expanding audience base, it has proven to be very profitable for many.