QUADRIGA INITIATIVE
CRYPTO WATCHDOG & FRAUD RECOVERY PLATFORM
A COMMUNITY-BASED, NOT-FOR-PROFIT
$1 124 000 USD
JANUARY 2022
UNKNOWN
YOUTUBE
DESCRIPTION OF EVENTS
"To begin with, we note that MicroStrategy is the largest crypto investor in the world. The company is developing software for data analysis using artificial intelligence algorithms. MicroStrategy turnkey solutions are used for business decision making and mobile software development."
"The company has more than 124,000 BTC worth over $5,000,000,000. Social media scammers introduced themselves as Michael Saylor and offered investors to double their investment. One gullible user "pecked" at the offer."
"Details from Scam Alert reported that this was a very effective ploy frequently carried out by scammers promising high returns on cryptocurrencies sent to their addresses using the faces of popular individuals. Furthermore, it was revealed that the 26 BTC was sent over five transactions."
“One of the most popular and effective types of scams in which the scammer promises to return multiple times the amount of cryptocurrency the victims sends to them. Giveaways scammers will pretend to be a famous person or to represent a trusted company in order to gain the victim’s trust and are mostly active on Youtube, Telegram and Twitter.”
"Speaking of the attacks, which he has been following for two years, Google says that fraudsters sent emails to content creators on YouTube with a proposal for cooperation. Once the channel owner agreed, the scammers sent a link to malware that appeared to be a legitimate URL." "Google provided an example of one of the phishing emails, and it shows that the hackers will ask the YouTube creator to try the product. In reality, the product is a ploy to trick the victim into installing malware on their computer."
"The attackers created more than 1,000 websites to increase the chances of fraud, including some that were presented as company sites that actually exist, including sites with Cisco VPN and Steam games. One of the websites was presented as a site with “Covid19 news software”. Google has linked to fraudsters about 15,000 accounts registered for this campaign alone and used to send phishing emails to YouTube channel owners, with links to victims to download malware."
"A payment of 26 #BTC (1,124,191 USD) was just made to a confirmed Michael Saylor Giveaway scam!" "It represents the single largest payment made to this kind of scheme."
"We suspect this payment was made through a #Coinbase address."
"Whale Alert reported the incident using their official Twitter handle at about 3 p.m. UTC, stating that a user had lost about 26 BTC to scammers that had created a fake giveaway posing as MicroStrategy head and Bitcoin Evangelist Michael Saylor."
According to Michael Saylor, "489 of these scams were launched on YouTube last week. We report them every 15 minutes and they are taken down after a few hours, but the scammers just launch more…" "According to the businessman, MicroStrategy is trying to track them and send complaints, after which YouTube removes the videos."
"YouTube has since shut down the channel operated by the scammers. The website has also stopped functioning and reports an error message when opened. The loss represents one of the largest single payments for this kind of scheme."
A Coinbase customer was tricked into sending 26 BTC to a scammer who created a convincing-looking MicroStrategy website and live-stream on YouTube. There is no indication any funds were recovered. The specific website and channel were taken down within a few hours, however the scammers continue to break into more accounts.
HOW COULD THIS HAVE BEEN PREVENTED?
Better education for new cryptocurrency users would be helpful. For example, a simple quiz to explain common types of scams. If this could be standardized, then users would do it once and it would apply to all platforms.
Platforms with delayed withdrawals who check outgoing addresses would also prevent this type of attack, as these types of scams are typically uncovered within a few hours.
The scammer who received the single largest payment of 26BTC has received a total of 87BTC. : CryptoCurrency (Jan 30)
Can someone explain to me how people fall for scams like "Send crypto to this adress to double it"? : CryptoCurrency (Feb 3)
@whale_alert Twitter (Feb 4)
https://scam-alert.io/scam/1Dv4yeEEoWSsmRFzFsNu3J7eiTTiLU3LQF (Feb 4)
Bitcoin Explorer - Blockstream.info (Feb 4)
Address: 1Dv4yeEEoWSsmRFzFsNu3J7eiTTiLU3LQF | Blockchain Explorer (Feb 4)
@saylor Twitter (Feb 4)
22 Best Valentine's Day Gift for Her and Him in 2022 (Feb 4)
A User Lost $1.14 Million To Michael Saylor Giveaway Scam | CoinCodeCap (Feb 4)
This Bitcoiner Just Lost 26 BTC Worth Over A Million Dollars To A "Michael Saylor Giveaway" Scam ⋆ ZyCrypto (Feb 4)
Biggest giveaway CRYPTO of $100 000 000 (Feb 4)
YouTube (Feb 4)
A User Lost 26 Bitcoin To A Scammer Pretending To Be MicroStrategy CEO, Michael Saylor - The Crypto Basic (Feb 4)
https://themarketperiodical.com/2022/01/17/an-investor-lost-26-bitcoins-to-a-fake-giveaway-scam-pretending-to-be-hosted-by-michael-saylor/ (Feb 4)
https://beincrypto.com/bitcoin-user-loses-record-1-1m-scam-michael-saylor-giveaway/ (Feb 4)
Scammers Posing as Michael Saylor Steal Over $1 Million Bitcoin (Feb 4)
Phishing campaign targets YouTube creators with cookie theft malware (Jan 26)
Hackers are phishing YouTube creators to steal their accounts, Google warns (Jan 27)
sippycupjoe comments on The scammer who received the single largest payment of 26BTC has received a total of 87BTC. (Sep 11)
