Crypto scammers stole millions of dollars through YouTube streams

New study says scammers using hacked YouTube accounts stole from viewersseveral million dollars in cryptocurrency.

Cybersecurity company Tenable noted,that digital thieves are using a dodgy mixture of celebrity ads and trending cryptocurrencies to make illegal profits through fake giveaways.

Analyst Satnam Narang said scammersuse YouTube Live to create supposedly live broadcasts that actually show previously recorded content that has been stolen and modified by fraudsters.

To promote fake cryptocurrency giveawayson YouTube, scammers use a very simple boilerplate approach ... Each video contains a section that broadcasts off-topic interviews with famous figures in the cryptosphere ...

 

Videos contain a section with url like socalled an event or draw. This section is non-interactive, which means that the user must manually enter a URL to go to the site.

As soon as a viewer enters the scammers' site, they are asked to send funds to a crypto address and are told that later they will receive twice as much funds.

Tech-savvy hustlers are stealing popular crypto assets including Bitcoin (BTC), Ethereum (ETH) and the popular meme coin Shiba Inu (SHIB).

Narang recently conducted a scam survey on YouTube Live for a month. The results showed that at least $ 8.9 million had been stolen by internet scams.

The report explains that media personalities known to many people are ideal for luring victims.

Scammers admit that users have a lot of trust in authority figures.

 

Using the many existing videos,where interviews with famous people are shown, criminals have developed a formula that adds credibility to what is happening, and therefore this scheme has been working for many years.

Capturingan existing YouTube account that already has a large subscriber base. This step provides a sense of authenticity and increases the likelihood that the video will be seen by a significant number of people.

Presentations should look attractive and professional, like this fake promotion with Elon Musk and SHIB.

Tenable notes that after Musk's appearance inOn the popular Saturday Night Live comedy show in May, hackers lured more than $ 10 million out of victims' pockets through fake cryptocurrency giveaways.

In response to the spread of fraud on theirplatforms, Google's threat intelligence team has published an extensive report entitled "Phishing campaign targets YouTube creators with cookie theft malware."

Many hacked channels were exposedchanges that allowed live streaming and cryptocurrency fraud. In account trading markets, the cost of hacked channels varies from $ 3 to $ 4,000, depending on the number of subscribers.

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