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In a fake crypto giveaway scam, Elon Musk targets his Twitter followers
Do you want to give Elon Musk a following on Twitter? Scammers might shortlist you to try and defraud Elon.
Musk’s new followers will be added to the “Deal Of The Year” Twitter list. This lures them to deposit small amounts of crypto into attackers wallets with false promises of receiving up to 5 000 Bitcoin.
Fake Elon: “1000 New Followers” get “5000 BTC.”
BleepingComputer discovered that Twitter accounts belonging to Elon Musk and SpaceX are being used as a target in a scam to steal crypto.
To keep updated with Twitter news, I followed today. This mysterious message arrived within a matter of hours.
Suspicious notification targeting new Elon Musk followers
(BleepingComputer)
An anonymous account using a Twitter logo as the profile picture had added me on a Twitter list called “Deal of the year.”
Most Twitter accounts (including Musk’s) have a public list of Twitter followers. This can be viewed by any bot or threat actor for malicious purposes.
This is the mobile version of the “Deal of the Year” list:
Twitter ‘Deal of the Year’ list is a scam
(BleepingComputer)
Today’s update shows that the threat actor (the administrator) has added 155 new members to this list. These accounts were reviewed by BleepingComputer and seen following Elon Musk and SpaceX on Twitter.
The header image is at the top.
This banner seems to be an official tweet by Elon Musk promising free cryptocurrency to “1000 new subscribers” selected randomly.
This is before you realize the true user name behind the fraud account, @CroweYoshiko, located right below the list name, “Deal of the year” with its profile pic, (Twitter logo), lending credibility to it.
The URL freedomgiveaway.net looks convincing. Musk, who is self-described as a free speech absolutist and tweets frequently about it [ , ] and has also taken in order to direct Twitter in this direction.
Bogus quiz asks you for BTC address
Users are welcomed to freedomgiveaway.net by being asked to confirm they have reached the “age of 18” and then presented with fake quizzes on Tesla, StarLink and Musk. These questions are well-known.
Bogus quiz presented by ‘Freedom Giveaway’ website
(BleepingComputer)
Users are shown a screen asking them to enter their Bitcoin address. The website will prompt for your BTC address regardless of which cryptocurrency you choose: Ethereum, Bitcoin or Binance Coin.
Website promises that your wallet with 5000 BTC will be credit, however you need to deposit some money first. This amount can range from 0.02 BTC up to 1 BTC.
False pretense: The amount that the victim sends will be multiplied by 5–10 times, with large amounts being returned to the victim’s bank account.
‘Freedom Giveaway’ asks you for your Bitcoin (BTC) wallet address
(BleepingComputer)
This is the Bitcoin address that was advertised by the attacker:
Like any other crypto-gave scam, the victim sends the money to the attacker’s account but does not receive any refund.
Group-IB, a cybersecurity company revealed that the number of scam domains containing cryptographic giveaways has tripled in September.
McAfee’s May investigation and BleepingComputer’s May report revealed that fake crypto giveaways had using Elon Musk’s Ark Invest YouTube videos. This was done to lure them towards scam, fake domains.
The Freedom Giveaway scam wallet shows $0.00 at the time this article was written. This indicates that no one has yet fallen for it. The scam may be new and BleepingComputer believes that warning people about it is important.
Followers of famous celebrities on Twitter should be cautious about suspicious notifications and messages.