CEO Social Capital Chamath Palihapitiya was the latest popular individuals involved in fake Bitcoin giveaways on YouTube
It seems that fraudsters are trying to break into some social media platforms. In particular, it is impossible not to mention the scammers impersonated the two famous figures by launching separate YouTube live videos to fake Bitcoin giveaways.
These are two of the wildest #bitcoin scams I’ve ever seen gaming the YouTube algo.
The scammers are rebranding verified channels to stream while botting their views to 150k+ which gets them to the @youtube homepage
These scams at scale will cause more #crypto video takedowns. pic.twitter.com/GcMiz32S2d
— Steve McGarry⚡️HackCrypto (@stvmcg) May 17, 2020
YouTube’s algorithm appears to be serving up another fake Bitcoin giveaways
Crypto Lark, a well-known YouTuber in the cryptocurrency market, posted screenshots of a proposed scam video for his 41,000 followers. The videos featured Founder and CEO of Social Capital, Chamath Palihapitiya, and current Los Angeles Clippers owner Steve Ballmer. Palihapitiya has a relation with the cryptocurrency community as he recently noted that people should allocate at least 1% of their investment portfolios in Bitcoin. On the other hand, Ballmer has no apparent history with digital assets.
Top recommended video for me today is a #bitcoin scam!
This is getting so out of control on Youtube. pic.twitter.com/M1Oeur96GI— The Crypto Lark (@TheCryptoLark) May 18, 2020
This shows scammers impersonated the two famous figures by launching separate YouTube live videos. Each exclusive that Palihapitiya and Ballmer were giving away free bitcoins, as one cryptocurrency proponent pointed out.
The fraudsters rebranded verified channels and, by using bots, managed to increase the number of views to over 150,000 per video. Therefore, those scams reached YouTube’s homepage and escalated the views even further.
The scammers inserted fake websites and BTC addresses within the videos saying that if viewers send a particular amount of bitcoins, they will receive more in return. Both live streams were fraudulent and had no intention to distribute thousands of BTC to the general public, as advertised.
However, there is now a website called Bitcoin Abuse Database, which specializes in the tracking of all reports against one of the fake channels. It suggests that some people may have indeed fallen for the scam. The Bitcoin address linked to one of the videos has received 24 transactions and over 3.5 BTC.
While the videos have been taken down now, the threat of similar activities is rising lately.
The increased number of impersonations and fake giveaways even urged Ripple to file a lawsuit against YouTube. Brad Garlinghouse, CEO Ripple, claiming that the platform is not doing enough to stop bogus crypto scams; they are having a negative impact on investors and entrepreneurs.
Last month YouTube introduced a tool to help viewers determine whether the content in question is genuinely misleading. However, until now, it appears that YouTube’s algorithm can’t always determine the difference between legitimate and fraudulent cryptocurrency content.
Read more:
- Wotoken Took In Roughly $1 Billion Worth Of Crypto At Current Prices From Over 715,000 Victims
- An Anonymous Hacker Group Has Stolen Over 129 Million Russian Car Owners Information To Sell For Cryptocurrency