According to the U.S. Federal Trade Commission, Elon Musk impersonators have stolen over $2.5 million in cryptocurrency in the past six months alone.
FTC data has revealed that that $US2 million (roughly $2.5 million) in various cryptocurrency has been stolen by Elon Musk impersonators since October, 2020.
In a post about crypto scams, the FTC said ” Others pretend to be celebrities — like a would-be Elon Musk — doing giveaways with claims of multiplying any cryptocurrency you send.”
In addition to fake accounts, the real accounts of high profile celebrities such as Elon Musk, Barack Obama and Bill Gates were hacked back in 2020 to try and scam crypto. Apple’s twitter account was also successfully targeted.
“I’m feeling generous because of Covid-19. I’ll double any BTC payment sent to my BTC address in the next hour. Good luck, and stay safe out there!” read a tweet sent from Elon Musk’s account, after it was hacked, backed in July.
““I am giving back to the community. All Bitcoin sent to the address below will be sent back doubled! If you send $1,000, I will send back $2,000. Only doing this for 30 minutes,” another tweet, send from Musk and Gates’ accounts, read at the time.
These posts have since been deleted.
But this is just a small portion of a much larger cryptocurrency scamming problem.
“Since October 2020, nearly 7,000 people reported losses to bogus cryptocurrency investments, adding up to more than $80 million,” the FTC stated.
“People ages 20-49 were more than five times more likely than other age groups to report losing money on those scams. But here’s an even more striking point: people in their 20s and 30s have lost more money on investment scams than on any other type of fraud.”
This is just the latest in a string of cryptocurrency news related to Musk over the past week. The price of Bitcoin dropped significantly last week after the Tesla CEO tweeted that the company would no longer be accepting the cryptocurrency as payment.
This news came mere months after Tesla announced that it would be accepting Bitcoin. It also had bought and sold a large portion of the cryptocurrency during this time.