Numerous online scammers have been using the billionaire’s name to trick others into believing he is holding a major giveaway. Since then, Elon Musk has been making the rounds on the internet and there have been a lot of phony links leading to fake giveaways using his name and his company, Tesla.
Many people have been duped by this phishing scheme, in which they are instructed to pay a small quantity of cryptocurrency to the said address of the false website in order to participate in the chance of receiving a significant sum of bitcoin in return. According to reports, no one has ever won the offer because it is a huge hoax.
I decided to randomly choose 1000 new followers, who can participate to the biggest crypto giveaway. Hurry up to join at: <scam link>
This fraud, in which people are followed by phony accounts that tweet edited images of the billionaire’s Twitter posts and claim that he is throwing a giveaway, has been going around on Twitter. The hoax would then spread as more and more people clicked the link.
Not only in the aforementioned social media, but it has also spread to YouTube, where several fake channels have hosted livestreams with videos of Elon Musk attending interviews to deceive viewers into thinking it is authentic. They then posted the giveaway link at the live chat, stream description, and even the stream title itself.
How does the Fake Tesla Giveaway Scam work?
First, the scammers would make dozens, if not hundreds, of spammy YouTube and Twitter profiles using various names. Then they would post edited versions of Elon Musk’s announcements claiming he is holding a big giveaway.
In order to propagate the post further, the stated altered post would then be uploaded by hundreds of false accounts along with a phishing link to a phony giveaway website while being followed by thousands of individuals.
When users click the provided link from the “screenshotted” post, they are taken to a phony giveaway website that displays false survey then requesting a minimum deposit of cryptocurrency from users in order to enter to win grand prizes like a Tesla car or huge amount of Bitcoin.
Nothing would happen once users have sent their cryptocurrency to the specified addresses because the awaiting payment screen is only intended to deceive people into believing the system is waiting for the payment. Many individuals are duped into sending in their crypto tokens since the website’s interface appears to be real.
The Elon Musk giveaway scam operates in the same way in YouTube, with the sole exception being, to make it appear more plausible, they stream videos of Elon Musk doing interviews on loop through their giveaway interface. The aforementioned link would then continue to be presented in the stream, where the majority of users would click it.
There are many people participating in the aforementioned broadcast and the false Twitter tweets, as seen by the two fake giveaways.
It would be extremely difficult to get your money back if you send cryptocurrency to the scammer’s address because there is no one in charge of crypto in general because it relies on your coins and your keys to function.
You are the only person whose solely responsible to whatever happen to your coins. Cryptocurrency transactions cannot be stopped or reversed once they have been started.
How to Report Fake Tesla Giveaway Scams
Getting your coins back is impossible, however you can start spreading awareness about this fraud right away. Anyone who comes across this fraud should never click on the link or do anything related to the giveaway. It would be preferable to report the tweet or livestream and let the social media administrators handle it.
Reporting a Twitter tweet:
1 Navigate to the scam tweet you’d like to report on the social media.
2 Click the three horizontal lines on the upper right portion of the post.
3 Select Report and fill in the information as to why you are reporting the tweet.
4 After sending the request, Twitter will look into it and have the scam post removed.
Reporting a YouTube video/stream:
1 Head over to the fake giveaway video you wish to report.
2 Click the three horizontal lines below the video.
3 Select Report and fill in the necessary information needed.
4 YouTube will look into it after receiving the request and the fraudulent post will be taken down.
Fake Tesla Giveaway Scam Removal Guide
By engaging with the aforementioned website, you run the risk of having your browser diverted to fraudulent drive-by downloads and other websites that fool you into having your cryptocurrency compromised.
One example is the virus known as Mars Stealer, which gathers memory information from crypto wallet extensions and then uses it to steal your coins.
We recommend using Malwarebytes Anti-malware to get rid of malware because we have determined that it can remove most types of malicious threats when we conducted tests.
Malwarebytes also offers a free 14-day trial when you download it for the first time, so you might want to use the remaining time of the trial to test out the premium features.
1 Click the button above to download the latest version of Malwarebytes Anti-malware.
2 Open the installation file after the download and follow the procedure shown.
3 After following the software setup instructions, wait for the application to finish installing.
4 Once the application is installed, you may now run your first computer scan and wait for it to finish.
5 All discovered malware on the computer will be displayed on the screen, and you can eliminate them by pressing the “quarantine” button.
Any potential malware that may have been hiding on your system has now been eliminated, and the modifications it made to the system have been undone. You may see to it that your crypto wallets are safe from stealer malware and other dangerous types as well.
