The crypto ecosystem saw an immense rise in 2021, and crypto scammers came out in droves to capitalize on the frenzy. Recently, many crypto content YouTubers reported that their accounts were hacked and saw fraudulent videos uploaded to their channels.
On Jan 23, a Twitter user that goes by Mr. Whale tweeted:
“BREAKING: Dozens of Crypto YouTubers have had their accounts hijacked by hackers promoting a fake crypto giveaway scam. Hacked accounts include: @IvanOnTech, @boxmining, @aantonop, @themooncarl, @Bitboy_Crypto, @mmcrypto, @Altcoinbuzzio, @FloydMayweather, @crypto_banter, @CoinMarketCap.”
A few of the hijacked accounts caught the videos in a matter of minutes but Altcoin Buzz’s video got more than 2,600 viewers in an hour. According to BscScan, the scam didn’t cause too much harm and a total of 2.3 BNB were transferred to the wallet address on the videos. There were a total of 10 transactions worth around $850 at the time of press.
HEX proponent Richard Heart tweeted, “Hello again @YouTubecreators My channel was just banned in the middle of a live stream. I think it might have to do with all of the other YouTubers that were hacked at the same time today. Could you check please, thanks!”
How did the crypto scammers get in?
A Reddit thread started by u/9Oh8m8 noted that it might be a sim swapping hack that allowed the hackers to bypass the two-factor authentication (2FA), saying, “They are all posting with a title like “ONE WORLD CRYPTOCURRENCY.” They have an address in the video and description to send your USDT/USDC/BNB/ETH to receive new crypto called OWCY. It’s all a scam.”
They added, “So far I’ve seen four big youtube channels that got hacked today to post about this. Bitboy, Aantanop, Ivanontech, and Boxmining. Pretty sure there are other smaller ones as well.”
There isn’t any accurate information confirming the technique used by hackers. According to YouTuber Boxmining, “there are more than 30 accounts affected” and luckily, YouTube is working to fix this issue.
Unfortunately, with the rise of cryptocurrency adoption, crypto scams have risen as well. According to a recent report by CNBC, more than $14 billion in cryptocurrencies were stolen in 2021, either by direct theft or via social media scams.
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