Elon Musk isn’t giving you crypto - it’s a scam
Old “give 1 BTC to Elon, get 2 back” scam returns
When you purchase through links on our site, we may earn an affiliate commission.Here’s how it works.
In the newest example of Elon Musk’sidentitybeing abused in cryptocurrency scams, a threat actor is targeting the eccentric billionaire’s newest Twitter followers, security experts have warned.
As reported byBleepingComputer, a scammer has created a nameless Twitter account, and placed the company logo for the profile picture, to create a false sense of legitimacy. They then started monitoring Elon Musk’s Twitter account for new followers, and adding them to a list called “Deal of the Year”.
Opening the list (which is public and visible to all) shows the victims a fake Elon Musk tweet in which he invites his new followers to a cryptocurrency giveaway.
Fake giveaway
“I decided to randomly choose 1,000 new followers who can participate to the biggest crypto giveaway,” the tweet says, and if nothing else, with the obvious grammar mistakes should be enough of a red flag.
The tweet also shares a link - freedomgiveaway.net, where victims need to go and complete a short quiz in order to participate in the “giveaway”. The quiz is mostly public knowledge, but it doesn’t really matter if you answer correctly, or not.
A deepfake of Elon Musk is trying to scam people out of crypto again>No, Elon Musk isn’t asking you to invest in Twitter - it’s a scam>Here are the best firewalls around
As soon as you’re done, the site will ask you for your cryptocurrency address, and promise to send 5,000 BTC to the lucky winners (roughly $84 million at press time). But before they can be credited with the fancy crypto, they must first deposit a small amount into “Elon’s” address - anywhere between 0.02 and 1 BTC.
The website also lists plenty of fake reviews praising the campaign, in order to make it more believable and to try and trick as many gullible investors as possible.
Are you a pro? Subscribe to our newsletter
Sign up to the TechRadar Pro newsletter to get all the top news, opinion, features and guidance your business needs to succeed!
The address the victims should deposit money into can be found onthis link, and luckily enough, it would seem Elon Musk’s followers aren’t that naive - the wallet is empty and has so far seen zero interactions. Let’s hope it stays that way.
Via:BleepingComputer
Sead is a seasoned freelance journalist based in Sarajevo, Bosnia and Herzegovina. He writes about IT (cloud, IoT, 5G, VPN) and cybersecurity (ransomware, data breaches, laws and regulations). In his career, spanning more than a decade, he’s written for numerous media outlets, including Al Jazeera Balkans. He’s also held several modules on content writing for Represent Communications.
This new phishing strategy utilizes GitHub comments to distribute malware
Should your VPN always be on?
Huge Black Friday Samsung sale: save up to $1,900 on QLED, OLED TVs, and more
