Fake Elon Musk Twitter Account Celebrates 2020 Elections With Cryptocurrency Scam

Yesterday, amid the hype surrounding the 2020 US presidential election, a verified fake “Elon Musk” account was caught delivering a cryptocurrency scam in the reply section of Donald Trump’s tweets.

In his message, the scammer tweeted that he wants to celebrate the almost-decided election by “giving to the people.

‘It is but decided by now. In other words, it’s over. To celebrate, we are giving to the people,” the tweet reads.

To make the scheme appear legitimate, the scammer also added links to SpaceX’s Youtube account.

The scheme follows the same pattern as the Twitter hack of July 2020, when attackers managed to steal $118,000 worth in bitcoin from users after seizing control of high-profile users’ accounts, including Elon Musk and Bill Gates.

The tweet’s instructions lead to a fake webpage that says that the “marketing department here at Tesla HQ came up with an idea: to hold a special giveaway event for all crypto fans out there.”

However, the site urges individuals to send from 0.1 to 20 BTC to a bitcoin address for double the amount back. Despite the high coverage and awareness surrounding previous cryptocurrency scams run on social media platforms such as Twitter, the fraudsters received nearly $32,000 worth of bitcoin and more than $6,000 worth of ether.

Back in 2018, the social media giant said it has taken action in response to scammers posing as Elon Musk and tricking people into sending them cryptocurrency.

Twitter emphasized that it would automatically lock any account that sets up the “Elon Musk” display name, requiring users to solve a Google reCAPTCHA and verify their phone number.