- A German man lost bitcoins worth $600K to Elon Musk Bitcoin Giveaway Scam
- Giveaway appeared to be conducted by Tesla and asked people to invest and receive double when the timer ends
- The German was devastated and felt like he just lost the ultimate source of support for his family and future
- He admits he was greedy and blindsided his otherwise active sense of judgment
The Elon Musk bitcoin giveaway scam cost a man his bitcoins worth $600 thousand. The German man revealed how he invested his bitcoins in a giveaway scheme and later found it to be a scam.
With the resolutely skyrocketing price of Bitcoin, Elon Musk’s Tesla investing in cryptocurrency worth $1.5 billion. He himself posting loads of crypto-related tweets together has inspired a thunderous rise in bitcoin giveaway scams under his name.
Elon Musk and his Experience
This week, the BBC got wind of a German man residing in Cologne named Sebastian. He claims to have lost 10 bitcoins to a bitcoin giveaway scam impersonating Elon Musk. Today, at the price of $59,115 per piece, equals about $600 thousand. On 21st February, he got a notification that Musk had tweeted “Dojo 4 Doge”. Out of curiosity, he then browsed the comment section where he came across a link, which the 42-year-old was unaware was posted by a fake Twitter account impersonating Elon Musk. Then he was redirected to a professional-looking website with a bitcoin giveaway in full swing.
The giveaway appeared to be conducted by Tesla and asked people to invest in the range of 0.1 to 20 BTC and receive double when the timer ends. The verification tick next to Musk’s name assured Sebastian of the conduct’s legality, and he sent 10 bitcoins. During the 20 minute countdown of the timer, he refreshed the page every 30 seconds. Sebastian realized it was fake, as the timer ended and nothing happened.
Lost the Ultimate Source of Support
Sebastian was devastated and felt like he just lost the ultimate source of support for his family and future. He then spent hours emailing and tweeting the fake account and website to get back at least some part of his investment. Gradually, he accepted that he wouldn’t be getting them back at all.
Scammers’ Profits
Research showed in 2020, about $16 million was scammed, and over $18 million has already been scammed by such giveaway scams in just the first quarter of 2021. Scammers impersonate the crypto space’s well-established personalities, including Elon Musk, Jeff Bezos, Vitalik Buterin, Bill Gates, Adam Back, or Charles Hoskinson. And thus, Sebastian warns others not to fall prey to such scams. He admits he was greedy, which blindsided his otherwise active sense of judgment.