Security News > 2021 > June > Musk-Themed ‘$SpaceX’ Cryptoscam Invades YouTube Advertising

The scam is rearing its Elon-Musk-themed head in ads on YouTube that show up before and after videos about cryptocurrency, according to research from Tenable.

"It did so by leveraging the existing infrastructure of YouTube Ads to identify their target demographic of cryptocurrency enthusiasts and get their ads in front of thousands of viewers. Many new cryptocurrency investors look to YouTube channels for news and guidance, so it's an ideal channel for promoting a fake coin."

Each of them are around three to five minutes long, and all follow the same format: There's a fake tweet at the top from SpaceX and Tesla founder Musk that claims he's launching his own cryptocurrency, called $SpaceX. The ad goes on to say that "Elon Musk is launching his own cryptocurrency, $SpaceX," in a bid to purportedly "Take everyone to Mars and make human life possible there." To sweeten the pot, the ads then note that for each transaction involving the $SpaceX coin, a donation will be made "Towards space-research companies" in order to "Help Elon's mission."

The scammers are also artificially manipulating the price of individual $SpaceX coins by creating coins and then sending them out of circulation by storing them in wallets on popular exchanges like Vb, Binance and Huobi, Narang said.

"Since these fraudulent $SpaceX coins aren't listed on any of these exchanges, the coins sent to these wallets cannot be returned and are lost forever, effectively burning them from the supply," he explained.

"My understanding is that through burning these coins, the scammers are reducing the supply of available coins, thus driving up the perceived price of the $SpaceX coin."

News URL

https://threatpost.com/musk-spacex-cryptoscam-youtube-advertising/167219/