Elon Gate

Nearly everyone in crypto has seen the ads. Send between 0.1 and 20 Bitcoin to this address and we’ll send you back double! What a generous chap Mr Elon Musk is. Once you’ve rumbled the ruse though, it can be hard to believe that anyone would (still) fall for this type of scam. But fall for it they do, and the scammers are evolving too:

• The number of victims of ‘giveaway’ scams has been increasing in recent years. According to Whale Alert, tens of millions of dollars are now lost per year.
• Last year, the BBC ran an article about Sebastian in Germany, who sent 10 Bitcoin to a scammer who had posted a fake response to an Elon Musk tweet.
• Criminals mainly use YouTube, Twitter and Telegram to promote their scams, even hacking well-known accounts to give it authenticity.
• And it’s not just Musk being exploited. In January this year Whale Alert reported that more than a million dollars was sent to a Michael Saylor scam.
• What started as basic websites, has evolved into scammers re-streaming edited versions of old panel discussions.
• And yesterday their level stepped up again. DogeDesigner warned on Twitter that scammers were now using Deepfakes to impersonate Musk.

For tips on prevention or how to check if an address is associated with a scam visit Scam Alert. And even if something is real, ask yourself if you really need to take part. Greed and FOMO are not something to build your system on.