Rapper Kishon Butler stated on his Instagram page that his YouTube channel had been hacked the day before by scammers. Now they are using it to promote fraudulent schemes.
The cybercriminals’ «extraction» turned out to be quite significant – more than 249 thousand users have subscribed to Butler’s channel. In the end, it all ended with the fact that hackers deceived many users of the platform and took away their cryptocurrency.
Recall that the promotion of schemes to deceive gullible crypto enthusiasts on popular social platforms has been flourishing for several years now. The most high-profile event of the past year was the hacking of Twitter for this purpose. Then the scammers published messages about the distribution of cryptocurrencies, that is, they promised to double the amount that each individual user would send them. Similar messages were published on behalf of Joe Biden, Kanye West, Barack Obama, Elon Musk, Bill Gates and other world famous people.
It is also worth remembering the scandal between the management of Ripple and YouTube, when the CEO of a cryptocurrency company, Brad Garlinghouse, filed a lawsuit against the video hosting for spreading fake information.
In general, such schemes are very common – especially on Twitter. However, the more popular the cryptocurrency becomes against the background of Bitcoin records, the more newcomers appear in the niche. They do not expect such a blatant deception and therefore easily lose money.
How cryptocurrencies are stolen
The HiiiKey channel – this is how the rapper is signed on YouTube – has helped the attackers earn over 70 thousand dollars by deceiving their victims. The channel was used for constant broadcasts with the alleged presence of celebrities in order for viewers to send coins to the cryptocurrency addresses of the scammers, according to Cointelegraph.
After gaining control of the channel, the hackers completely changed the appearance of the page and renamed it to Ethereum FUND, after which they deleted all other videos. The attackers did not change the information on the channel description tab, which still contains HiiiKey information and links to his social media accounts.
The hackers then used the channel to broadcast a live broadcast on January 7 that advertised a fake Ethereum and Bitcoin giveaway. Given the large number of subscribers to the channel, at least 50 thousand viewers attended the broadcast.
We believe that most of the viewers were bots, that is, in fact, hackers «cheated» them. This is necessary to create the credibility of the video and the feeling of competition. The hackers’ job is to inspire people with the idea that the «free» money will soon run out, which means they need to hurry. Well, if the video did not have thousands of online viewers, the chances of believing in what is happening would be much lower.
The broadcast used an old video of the co-founder of Ethereum Vitalik Buterin, talking about the launch of the Beacon Chain and the transition to Ethereum 2.0 until December 2020. The video was overlaid with text advertising the distribution of 40 thousand ETH and 3 thousand BTC. Of course, neither Vitalik Buterin nor the owner of the channel were initially aware of the broadcast and have nothing to do with it.
At the same time, users were promised profit for sending coins to the addresses mentioned under the video. In other words, the scheme of deception is standard: the victim is promised to send back twice the amount of coins that she sends. Naturally, this is all deception. At the time of writing, the hackers have received a total of 39.1 ETH worth about $ 47,260. A little more than 0.6 BTC was sent to the Bitcoin address, which is currently about 22 thousand dollars.
The main lesson to be learned from this news is that nothing is free in the world of cryptocurrencies. Except for rare cases like the distribution of Uniswap tokens last fall. If someone offers you a reward for a “small fee,” ignore such messages.
We believe that such schemes will continue to work in the future. Still, the temptation to double cryptocurrency savings is too great, besides, some novice cryptocurrency enthusiasts do not corny expect the presence of greedy hackers in the niche.
Therefore, they will share the money they earn over and over again. Since YouTube’s management hasn’t solved the problem in a few years, it probably won’t end in 2021 either.
