Cryptocurrency scam bots have been ravaging social media over the past year, with both Tesla CEO Elon Musk and Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey openly condemning the practice.
Previously, bots would create false profiles on Twitter then reply to influential figures with details of their scam, which usually went along the lines of: “Send 1 Ethereum to our wallet and we’ll send you 10 back in return.” They even created more false profiles to reply, saying ‘thank you for the giveaway’, in an attempt to legitimise the practice.
Twitter did well to eliminate the majority of bots from its platform, but they have now made their way onto popular video sharing site YouTube.
On Wednesday a fake profile posed as Litecoin CEO Charlie Lee, promising to giveaway 10 Litecoin to every user who sent them one Litecoin. The video even had a constantly updating stream of Litecoin transactions to try and sucker in unsuspecting victims.
I want to know who is running the Etherium scambots! Mad skillz …
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) July 8, 2018
More than 5,000 people were watching the stream at 2pm on Wednesday, and it received over 950 likes.
According to reports earlier this year, these scams can net a staggering $50,000 to $100,000 per day. Ethereum Founder Vitalik Buterin resorted to changing his name on Twitter to ‘Vitalik Non-giver of Ethereum’. Cryptocurrency enthusiasts are encouraged to be vigilant.
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Disclaimer: The views and opinions expressed by the author should not be considered as financial advice. We do not give advice on financial products.