What is Elon Musk Twitter Giveaway Scam
Elon Musk Twitter Giveaway Scam is a generic crypto scam that tries to trick users into sending scammers cryptocurrency. It’s a very common crypto scam that claims all users who send Bitcoin to the provided wallet address will receive double the amount. These types of scams are advertised all over the Internet, you can find them on hijacked YouTube accounts, as comments on legitimate Elon Musk Twitter posts, etc. Elon Musk has shown considerable interest in cryptocurrencies and because he is currently the wealthiest person in the world, his name is often used when promoting these scams. But it goes without saying that he is in no way related to the scams. While they may be operated by different scammers, they all look more or less the same. Unfortunately, these scams have proven to be quite successful, considering that they are still quite prevalent despite being around for years.
One recent Elon Musk Twitter Giveaway Scam we’ve encountered claims that after he bought the social media network Twitter, he decided to give away Bitcoins. Supposedly, if users send any amount of Bitcoin to the wallet address, they would receive double the amount. The instructions to participate in this supposed giveaway state that users can only participate once, which means users will not be able to test whether the giveaway is legitimate with smaller amounts of Bitcoins. Instead, they will be tempted to send large amounts in hopes of receiving a lot of money. Of course, those who send the Bitcoin would not receive anything in return. And victims of this scam will not be able to get their cryptocurrency back. It’s worth mentioning that no matter how legitimate these crypto giveaways may look, they will always be scams. Neither Elon Musk nor anyone else will host such giveaways.
Unfortunately, if you have fallen for the Elon Musk Twitter Giveaway Scam, you will not be able to get your cryptocurrency back. In the future, regard all cryptocurrency giveaways as scams, especially if they are promoted using Elon Musk’s name.
Where can you encounter an Elon Musk Twitter Giveaway Scam?
If you are a Twitter user and follow Elon Musk’s account, you may have noticed fake accounts commenting on his posts with links to these scams. These Twitter accounts are made to look like legitimate Elon Musk accounts, with the profile picture and profile name being the same. To some users, it may seem like these comments are coming from the legitimate Musk account. However, if you take a closer look, you will notice that the Twitter handle does not match. And if you were to click on the profile, it would immediately become obvious that the account does not belong to Elon Musk as it would be empty of posts and have a very small following.
A couple of years ago, scammers went a step further and were able to briefly take over legitimate high-profile Twitter accounts (Apple, Bill Gates, Elon Musk, etc.) to promote crypto giveaway scams. Within minutes, almost $120,000 in cryptocurrency was transferred to the scammers’ accounts.
Scammers also hijack unused or vulnerable YouTube accounts in order to promote crypto scams. YouTube channels with at least a couple of thousand subscribers look more credible than those without any, so hijacking accounts is better for scammers than creating new ones. Scammers then post videos from Tesla conferences or ones where Elon Musk has spoken, and display their crypto scam on the side, inviting people to send cryptocurrency to get double the amount back.
It’s also possible to be randomly redirected to these scams if you browse high-risk websites without an adblocker or if your computer is infected with adware. Certain sites are known to trigger redirects no matter what you click on. Sites with pornographic or pirated content are great examples of this. Fortunately, these redirects are easily preventable with a good adblocker program.
If your computer is infected with adware, you will be redirected to questionable websites much more frequently. Adware itself isn’t particularly dangerous because it does not cause direct harm to computers but the ads could expose to potentially dangerous content. Elon Musk Twitter Giveaway Scam is a great example of this.