Elon Musk is the CEO of Tesla, Neuralink, and SpaceX. Inside the cryptocurrencyA digital currency running on a blockchain and built with cryptography. Contrary to central-bank issued currency, cryptocurrency issuance rules are... world, he’s also widely known to advocate for Dogecoin (DOGE). Besides, he seems to be in favor of BitcoinBitcoin is the first decentralized digital currency. It was created in 2009, by an anonymous founder or group of founders... More (BTCAn abbreviation for Bitcoin.), and he’s been a powerful influence in the market. Some bad actors are constantly taking advantage of this. Now it’s the turn for the “Elon Musk Club”, a scammer group looking for cryptos.
At this point, it’s very usual to find fishy posts on social media (especially Twitter) promising fake giveaways. The methodology is simple: the scammer(s) pretends to be some famous personality and promises to give away a certain amount in cryptos. This, of course, if the people send them some smaller amount first to “register their addresses”, donate to some cause, or similar.
That’s exactly what the “Elon Musk Mutual Aid Fund” or Elon Musk Club is doing now with cryptos. However, they’re not using social media this time, but spam emails titled “Get free Bitcoin”. It doesn’t seem like a smart move, but there’s a trick on it. If the victim is curious, opens the email, and goes to the website provided, they’ll find a fake invitation by Elon Musk to receive 0.001 to 0.055 bitcoins.
When they accept, they’re redirected to a site dubbed “Bitcoin Donate – International Financial Assistance”. Then, the system asks for the payment details of the victim and tricks them to believe that random people worldwide are donating BTC to their addressAn address is a blockchain equivalent to a bank account number in the traditional financial system, or an email address.... More. Once the (fake) donations reach 0.055 BTC, the victim is urged to “donate” at least 0.001 BTC to another “random user” in order to receive their own “financial assistance”.
The supposedly random user is, of course, part of the scammers. If the victim sends any amount, they won’t receive anything back.
Protecting from Elon Musk crypto scams
This kind of attack is a fake giveaway, but can also be considered “phishing”. The latter is a fraudulent version of something digital, designed to deceive the victims and steal their credentials and/or money. By combining both techniques, these scammers managed to snatch over $4,700 in BTC so far in only two linked addresses, according to some reports.
In cases like this one, the best you can do is never open dubious emails, and let alone their attachments. If they’re offering you free money, and especially if Elon Musk is offering you free cryptos, you must know that’s a giant red flag. Musk is a favorite of scammers, which pretend to be him all the time.
Besides, if you need to give money to receive money, that’s likely a scam. Always look for previous reviews on any platform, and don’t fall for it. Do your own research (DYOR)!
Featured Image by Tumisu / Pixabay
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