Thomas Daniels
SpaceX and BitOK have uncovered a fraudulent cryptocurrency giveaway scam that falsely used Elon Musk’s name, duping people into donating $165,000. Scammers used a deepfake of Musk in live YouTube streams, now removed, to lure victims. According to a report shared with crypto.news, viewers were prompted to visit a website via a QR code in the stream, where they were instructed to send cryptocurrency to certain addresses, with the promise of a 200% bonus return.
The scam also involved fake SpaceX YouTube broadcasts, attracting 180,000 subscribers. The Bitcoin (BTC) address for donations, identified as bc1qc4rwqqf0q75rn032knwkvxtrdm4vurkusr8s4k, received about 2.48 BTC, worth around $91,566. These funds were then moved to another address, bc1q6yjkfe0edtyn4luwskx30gg35r7eclllfsp3jg. From there, 1.25 BTC was sent to a KuCoin exchange deposit address (3NcPowGtnnUxsgFSeCUoiaXW2MtcHUjXF4), while the rest was rerouted to a change address and eventually also sent to KuCoin.
