Elon Musk and SpaceX are not in the business of cryptocurrencies and if you happened to watch a YouTube livestream claiming so, then chances are that you have been duped. Last day, the billionaire’s space company successfully caught the Falcon rocket booster in mid-air before successfully docking it into the launchpad.
This remarkable feat is a testament to the efforts of SpaceX engineers and their visionary leader Elon Musk. While the world’s richest man is fondly called the “Father of Dogecoin” for his support for the memecoin and crypto assets in general, he is not celebrating his company’s success by launching a cryptocurrency.
A new YouTube video surfaced in which Musk was seen announcing that SpaceX will distribute $100 million in free Bitcoin (BTC), Ethereum (ETH), Dogecoin (DOGE), and other tokens to all those who connect their wallets to the SpaceX website. Viewers were asked to visit a website provided in the video description and send some crypto to a wallet address that claims to be by SpaceX to double their earnings.
As tempting as this may sound, it was a trademark case of a crypto giveaway scam. Scammers are jumping on the frenzy of SpaceX’s recent successes to create completely fake giveaways by impersonating Elon to steal the digital assets of unsuspecting victims.
Read to find out how this insidious scam works and how to avoid becoming the next victim.
What Is SpaceX Crypto Giveaway Scam And How Does It Work?
The SpaceX cryptocurrency giveaway scam is an elaborate ruse designed to deceive victims into transferring their valuable digital assets into the wallets of fraudsters. Scammers impersonate Elon Musk and SpaceX to pilfer millions in various cryptocurrencies.
They typically begin with online advertisements spread across various social media platforms like X, Facebook, Instagram, and YouTube. The ads will feature video footage of Elon Musk, manipulated using deepfake technology, where he announces a crypto giveaway tied to a recent achievement by SpaceX or any of his companies.
In one instance, a video titled “Tesla unveils a masterpiece: The Tesla that will change the Car Industry Forever”, was uploaded, which showed a clip of Musk speaking live from a venue that was meant to look like a Tesla event. An AI-generated voice of the billionaire was instructing viewers to visit a bogus website and deposit their Bitcoin, Ethereum, or Dogecoin to participate in a giveaway. The video message that was playing in repeat promised to automatically send back double the amount of cryptocurrency that was deposited.
The deepfakes are highly convincing, in the way it mimics Musk’s voice, mannerisms, and expressions with incredible accuracy. This is instrumental in adding a layer of legitimacy to the fake promotion.
The videos will have thousands of live viewers, which will be dominated by bots, pushing it to the top of YouTube’s Live Now recommendations. The channels doing the live broadcast will have YouTube’s official Artist Channel verification badge, meaning that it may be a creator account that was hacked.
The videos ask viewers to visit a website that is mentioned in the video’s description, where they are met with sophisticated scam pages modeled to look like the official website of either SpaceX or Tesla, depending on which company is in the news. These pages feature SpaceX or Tesla branding, images of Musk, and even content that was directly plagiarized from real websites to avoid detection.
The sites reiterate the details of the cryptocurrency giveaway by providing wallet addresses tied to various crypto assets. Visitors are instructed to send their funds to these addresses to participate in the giveaway and receive the promised rewards. There will be a fake countdown timer, progress bars, and limited supply notices throughout the page that create a sense of urgency, pushing visitors to send funds as soon as possible.
In actuality, the wallet addresses provided on these sites are controlled entirely by scammers. There is no giveaway, it is merely a muse to steal cryptocurrencies. Once the funds are sent, the scam website displays a fake message showing the deposits as well as a completed return payment of double the sent amount. However, the return payment never materializes.
With the stolen crypto secured in their wallets, the fraudsters disable the scam website, but by then it would be too late for victims to recover their funds. These scams are constantly evolving to attract more victims by exploiting new events, technologies, and cryptocurrencies.
How To Identify A Fake Crypto Giveaway Scam?
Here is how to spot a fake SpaceX crypto giveaway scam:
- Legitimate companies are not involved in the scheme of giving away vast amounts of money or guaranteeing unrealistic profits. Anything of that sort being promoted by a big corporation should raise suspicions.
- You can identify a scam account by looking at the username, which is usually misspelled, has no verification checkmarks, and limited posting history.
- Scammers are known to routinely misuse company logos.
- Scam websites mostly use “.org” instead of “.com” domains. This is a subtle difference that will save your life.
- Legitimate companies do not require upfront crypto deposits to receive giveaways.
- Scam websites lack any way of getting help if something is wrong. This is a major warning sign.
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