As a seasoned researcher with a keen interest in the intersection of technology, finance, and social media, I find myself deeply troubled by the latest incident involving crypto scammers taking over Indian influencer Ranveer Allahbadia’s channels. The audacity of these cybercriminals to hijack such prominent platforms and exploit the trust of millions is truly disheartening.
Crooks who deal with cryptocurrencies hijacked the YouTube accounts and influence of popular Indian figure Ranveer Allahbadia, using them to advertise a bogus scheme promising as much as double the investment made in cryptocurrency.
On September 25th, Indian content creator, entrepreneur, and social media influencer Allahbadia fell victim to crypto scammers. Hackers took control of and rebranded several of his YouTube channels to stream an AI-modified video featuring Elon Musk, who appeared to be endorsing a “double your crypto” investment scheme.
The initial channel named BeerBiceps, with over 7.8 million subscribers, his second personal channel, Ranveer Allahbadia, having more than 9.4 million followers, as well as a third channel showcasing podcast excerpts to an audience of 1.2 million, were all infiltrated and transformed to resemble Tesla, Elon Musk’s famous automotive and clean energy corporation.
Hackers disguised themselves as authentic Tesla platforms by altering their logos, usernames, and removing all prior content. Their goal was to trick viewers into believing they were witnessing genuine cryptocurrency giveaways and live broadcasts with Elon Musk’s image, which turned out to be false.
Historically, fraudsters disguised as Elon Musk or his ventures such as SpaceX, have often tricked crypto fans out of their money by falsely claiming they represent these entities.
In this instance, however, the thumbnail also featured United States Vice President Kamala Harris and Former President Donald Trump, alongside Musk, possibly in a bid to cash in on the hype around the 2024 elections, where cryptocurrencies have become a major topic.
As of the current reporting, the videos have been removed; however, multiple viewers on platform X claim that one of the live streams attracted over 149,000 viewers simultaneously at some point.
Similar to past events, the live broadcasts included a QR code that, once scanned, directed users to a counterfeit Tesla-branded site, presenting a $100 million sweepstakes offer.
Users encountered an automated chatbot too, which presented a questionable promotion as an alleged event endorsed jointly by Elon Musk and Donald Trump, aiming at boosting the popularity of cryptocurrency.
The platform showcased wallet addresses for Bitcoin (BTC), Ethereum (ETH), Solana (SOL), and Dogecoin (DOGE) with the promise of doubling the sent cryptocurrency. To create an air of authenticity, a simulated transaction history was displayed as well, continuously updating to give the impression that people were indeed transferring their funds.
During Apple’s “Glowtime” event on September 9, a different site, not an official one, was dishonestly publicized. Deceitful individuals employed these unauthentic platforms to falsely represent the genuine event, pretending to be Apple and its CEO, Tim Cook.
As of now, it’s uncertain exactly how many individuals have been impacted by this scam. However, the incident is troubling given the high profile of Allahbadia’s platforms and the increasing use of cryptocurrencies in India.
As of now, Allahbadia has not yet made an official statement regarding the incident.
This event represents the second instance of targeting a notable Indian YouTube channel. It occurred approximately one week following an incident where fraudulent advertising for phishing schemes involving Ripple executives and the XRP token was disseminated on the Supreme Court of India’s official YouTube channel.
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2024-09-26 12:24