Sources Contact Advanced Search Tutorials

An Interest In:

Web News this Week

Search Archive

Some of Our Sources

View All Sources

Help Webnuz

Referal links:

March 21, 2021 07:56 am

Man Loses $560,000 in Bitcoin Scam From Fake Elon Musk Account

It all started when a 42-year-old German man named Sebastian saw a mysterious tweet that he thought was from Elon Musk, reports Entrepreneur:"Musk tweeted 'Dojo 4 Doge' and I wondered what it meant," the man recounted. "There was a link to a new event below, so I clicked on it and saw that it was giving away bitcoins!" Like many onlookers, Sebastian clicked on the link and came to a web page that seemed legitimate. There he found a countdown timer and a quiz, supposedly run by the Tesla team. The dynamic consisted of sending from 0.1 bitcoins (with an approximate value of 6,000 dollars) to 20 bitcoins (about 1.2 million dollars), with the promise of doubling the amount at the end... At the time of the fraud, his 10 bitcoins were worth about $560,000 (about 11.5 million Mexican pesos). After double checking the verification logo next to Elon Musk's name, he decided to participate. "'Take the maximum,' I thought. This is definitely real, so I sent 10 bitcoins," said Sebastian...Sebastian's 10 bitcoins are the largest recorded amount ever lost in a single such transaction, said Whale Alert, an Amsterdam-based blockchain analytics company. According to analysts, during the first quarter of 2021, the scam gangs have made more than $18 million in this way. This amount exceeds the $16 million dollars that they obtained during all of 2020. Regarding the number of victims, in 2020, some 10,500 people fell for this type of fraud. However, so far in 2021, there have already been 5,600 victims (and counting).

Slashdot

Slashdot was originally created in September of 1997 by Rob "CmdrTaco" Malda. Today it is owned by Geeknet, Inc..

More About this Source Visit Slashdot