Quote:YouTube fans have been swindled out of almost $1 million (and counting) thanks to an extremely convincing fake SpaceX crypto-coin campaign that uses a popular decentralized finance protocol called Uniswap.
The scam is rearing its Elon-Musk-themed head in ads on YouTube that show up before and after videos about cryptocurrency, according to research from Tenable. So far, the scammers have earned more than $430,000 so far across two completed campaigns, with a third still running that is on pace to bring the total “earnings” up to $1 million, the firm said.
“The reason this particular campaign stands out is that it didn’t rely on promotion through Telegram channels or social media, but it rode the wave of success scammers have found through YouTube,” explained Satnam Narang, researcher at Tenable, in a blog posting on Thursday. “It did so by leveraging the existing infrastructure of YouTube Ads to identify their target demographic of cryptocurrency enthusiasts and get their ads in front of thousands of viewers. Many new cryptocurrency investors look to YouTube channels for news and guidance, so it’s an ideal channel for promoting a fake coin.”
The ads have been running since the end of May, according to the analysis. Each of them are around three to five minutes long, and all follow the same format: There’s a fake tweet at the top from SpaceX and Tesla founder Musk that claims he’s launching his own cryptocurrency, called $SpaceX.
The ad goes on to say that “Elon Musk is launching his own cryptocurrency, $SpaceX,” in a bid to purportedly “take everyone to Mars and make human life possible there.” To sweeten the pot, the ads then note that for each transaction involving the $SpaceX coin, a donation will be made “towards space-research companies” in order to “help Elon’s mission.”
Read more: Musk-Themed ‘$SpaceX’ Cryptoscam Invades YouTube Advertising | Threatpost
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