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YouTube crypto giveaway scams

scaminvestigations.substack.com

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Re: YouTube crypto giveaway scams

#42

Post by varenc »

AnthonyMouse wrote: post #34
danielmarkbruce wrote: post #18

Surely there is a mechanism in these technological marvels which are cryptocurrencies to get the money back?

Bring the scammer before a judge. The same as when anyone scams you out of cash or gemstones or electronics. "I put a ruby in a box and shipped it to Nigeria because an email told me to. How do I get it back?" It's not a new problem.

I think 100% irreversible purely online/digital transactions are a bit of a new problem? If you wire transferred money to a scammer's bank account it won't be easy getting it back, but if you realize your mistake soon enough you at least have a chance. For example, it's possible to to get the receiving bank to hold the money pending an investigation. With a crypto transfer there's no higher authority to appeal to. (which has pros and cons)

Re: YouTube crypto giveaway scams

#45

Post by mensetmanusman »

A family member lost $3k to this. YouTube promoted a real looking interview with the founder of ETH, high production value, saying they will double your ETH etc.

When most of of crypto users are poor and less educated they tend to be targeted…

Re: YouTube crypto giveaway scams

#46

Post by derimagia »

I saw a few of livestream scams happen real-time so let me explain what I saw. I didn't see it on YouTube but I saw it on Twitch a few times and I never saw anyone mention it before.

Short answer is it's an evolution of the Elon Musk Twitter scams where people are told to send crypto (Usually bitcoin) to an address to double it. The main difference than the traditional scams is with livestream you have an audience - the chat.

Tens of thousands of viewbots to bring the counter on the livestream high and then the chat is flooded with chat messages but fake accounts that I can see how people could think they were real. Things trying to convince you that it is safe, that it worked, and even talking with each other asking how easy it is. It doesn't matter if the account is banned after 20 minutes or more, it's already done the damage.

First time I saw this was about ~6 months ago. It was a fake account with a similar name for a Dota streamer. They had fake footage of the game and I was pretty shocked. It had something like 10,000 viewers and after reporting the channel it was still up for a while.

Other times I've seen it with Elon Musk with footage of the Tesla plant talking to a reporter about crypto. I can see how the voices can be fakes as well and how much potential it can have when combined with the chat. These were up for less time.

Re: YouTube crypto giveaway scams

#47

Post by philliphaydon »

The author says Twitter cracked down on this. But every time Elon musk tweets the first reply is a Bitcoin scam. If you click on any super popular person there’s a reply for sole Bitcoin scam.

IMO it’s only got worse on Twitter, not better.

Re: YouTube crypto giveaway scams

#48

Post by YATA0 »

tbezman wrote: post #19
JCharante wrote: post #16

Lol a doubling scam. These scams have existed since MMOs began and you could trick people into giving you items/currency under false pretenses. Ironically a smart contract is probably the safest way for a customer to engage in a doubling scam.

For those that aren't aware. It's pretty easy to write an escrow smart contract which ensures both parties got what they signed up for. But anyone falling for this scam definitely isn't going to ask "Can we use an escrow contract to double my money?"

>For those that aren't aware. It's pretty easy to write an escrow smart contract which ensures both parties got what they signed up for.

Press F [0][1] to doubt.

[0] https://hackingdistributed.com/2016/06/18/analysis-of-the-da...

[1] https://hackingdistributed.com/2017/07/22/deep-dive-parity-b...

Re: YouTube crypto giveaway scams

#49

Post by detaro »

beaned wrote: post #23

I don't understand how anyone can be cutting-edge enough to be into crypto and know how to send a transaction, yet not also know how to spot a scam in the year 2022.

cryptocurrency exchanges have TV ads and buy football stadium branding ("crypto.com arena") and are easy to access. It's not a cutting-edge thing anymore.
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