As Elon Musk Sparks Crypto Interest, Scammers Target Newbies To Make Quick Profit

Tesla Inc. TSLA CEO Elon Musk is on a tweet-spree promoting Dogecoin (DOGE) and scammers are seeing an opportunity to make some quick bucks.

What Happened: A sophisticated giveaway scam in the name of Elon Musk was spotted across social media platforms, including those of Twitter Inc. TWTR and Reddit, on Sunday.

A screenshot, likely manipulated through a graphics editor like Photoshop, that shows the verified Elon Musk twitter account saying "to celebrate crypto, our marketing department has decided to have a give away" was circulating on Reddit, as spotted by u/nicoznico.

A screenshot of the scam website. Reminder: Don't send any cryptocurrency to this address.

The Twitter post links to a medium post that provides one address each for Bitcoin (BTC) and Ethereum (ETH) payments.

See also: How to Invest in Tesla Stock

“If you send in 5 BTC or 50 ETH, you will get the Grand Prize: a brand new Tesla Model S Performance with Midnight Silver Metallic, Solid Black and Red Multi-Coat exterior, delivery included,” the medium post reads. 

“DM me on Twitter if you did that and we will organize the delivery as soon as possible,” the author with the name of Elon Musk claims.

Why It Matters: Such cryptocurrency scams in the name of Musk are common and have been around for years. Yet, these scammers manage to make away with money each time.

As of press time, the Bitcoin address associated with the scam had 1.38 BTC transferred to it, worth about $54,249.73. The Ethereum address had an inflow of about 1.94 ETH, worth  $3,189.38 at press time.

A similar scam in January was noted to have made away with $587,000. Verified Twitter accounts in the name of Elon Musk promoting cryptocurrency scams have also been observed.

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