Dojo For Doge Bitcoin Doubling Scam

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Twitter

A German man though he was participating in a giveaway from Elon Musk which would double his money. He clicked a link posted by an account that had Elon Musk's name with a verified checkmark and was taken to a professional website with a countdown timer for the giveaway. He sent a payment of 10 bitcoin.

The scammer cashed out the bitcoin anonymously a few days later. No funds were received or recovered.

This exchange or platform is based in Germany, or the incident targeted people primarily in Germany.

About Twitter

"The night had been otherwise forgettable."

"[Sebastien] and his wife watched a series on Netflix, before she went to bed and left him on the sofa messing about on his phone."

"I have studied and have a good marketing job in the IT Industry. I live together with my wife and two children and we have a nice house with a garden."

"The 42-year-old says he first invested $40,000 in Bitcoin in 2017, and quickly made his money back as the value of the coins rose on the open market. He cashed out and got his initial money back, but then watched excitedly over the years as the 10 coins grew to be worth nearly 500,000 euros."

"Then he received a Twitter notification with news from Elon Musk."

"Musk caused a stir on February 21 by tweeting, "Dojo 4 Doge," a reference to the cryptocurrency dogecoin. He often tweets his enthusiasm for cryptocurrencies — moving markets in the process."

"[T]he price of bitcoin [had been] repeatedly hitting record highs, Tesla [had recently] invest[ed] $1.5 billion in the cryptocurrency, and Elon Musk’s [had posted] various crypto tweets."

Sebastian told the BBC: "Musk tweeted, 'Dojo 4 Doge?' and I wondered what it meant.

"There was a link to a new event below, so I clicked on it and saw that he was giving away Bitcoin!"

"The link led to a professional-looking page, the BBC reported, that described an offer in which people could send Musk bitcoins and receive twice as much in return."

"There was a timer counting down, and the website promised participants that they could double their money."

"The competition was apparently being run by Elon Musk's Tesla team. It invited people to send anything from 0.1 Bitcoin (worth approximately £4,300) to 20 Bitcoin (approximately £860,000), and the team would send back double the amount."

"Sebastian double-checked the verification logo next to Elon Musk's name, and then tried to decide whether to send five or 10 Bitcoin.

"'Take the maximum', I thought, this is definitely real, so I sent 10 Bitcoin."

"For the next 20 minutes as the timer wound down, Sebastian waited for the prize to land in his Bitcoin wallet."

"From his house in Cologne in Germany he sat there refreshing his screen every 30 seconds."

"He saw Mr Musk send a fresh cryptic tweet and felt reassured that the giveaway was real."

But slowly the timer on the website ran down to zero, and Sebastian said: "I realised then that it was a big fake."

"I was greedy that night and it made me blind."

"I threw my head on to the sofa cushions and my heart was beating so hard. I thought I'd just thrown away the gamechanger for my family, my early retirement fund and all the upcoming holidays with my kids."

"I went upstairs and sat on the edge of the bed to tell my wife. I woke her up and told her that I'd made a big mistake, a really big mistake."

"Sebastian, who asked that the BBC didn't use his real name, didn't sleep that night."

"Instead, he spent hours emailing the scammer website and tweeting the fake Elon Musk' Twitter account to try to get some or all of his money back."

"However, he eventually began to accept the money was gone forever."

"133 miles away in Amsterdam, analysts at Whale Alert had watched in horror as Sebastian's 10 Bitcoin were transferred and then cashed out anonymously a few days later."

"The blockchain analysis company has tried to get authorities to take action against the scams for months, but says nothing is being done."

"The analysts use a public ledger that shows all movement of cryptocurrencies in real time to spot trends and track money."

"They have identified which Bitcoin addresses or wallets are operated by so-called "giveaway scammers" and have tracked the increasing amount of money they are making. Sebastian's 10 Bitcoin was the most they'd ever recorded being lost in one transaction."

"Three weeks on and Sebastian is clearly still extremely embarrassed. He starts our email conversation by insisting that he is "normally not the biggest idiot in the whole world".

This exchange or platform is based in Germany, or the incident targeted people primarily in Germany.

The background of the exchange platform, service, or individuals involved, as it would have been seen or understood at the time of the events.

Include:

• Known history of when and how the service was started.
• What problems does the company or service claim to solve?
• What marketing materials were used by the firm or business?
• Audits performed, and excerpts that may have been included.
• Business registration documents shown (fake or legitimate).
• How were people recruited to participate?
• Public warnings and announcements prior to the event.

Don't Include:

• Any wording which directly states or implies that the business is/was illegitimate, or that a vulnerability existed.
• Anything that wasn't reasonably knowable at the time of the event.

There could be more than one section here. If the same platform is involved with multiple incidents, then it can be linked to a main article page.

The Reality

This sections is included if a case involved deception or information that was unknown at the time. Examples include:

• When the service was actually started (if different than the "official story").
• Who actually ran a service and their own personal history.
• How the service was structured behind the scenes. (For example, there was no "trading bot".)
• Details of what audits reported and how vulnerabilities were missed during auditing.

What Happened

The specific events of the loss and how it came about. What actually happened to cause the loss and some of the events leading up to it.

Key Event Timeline - Dojo For Doge Bitcoin Doubling Scam

Date	Event	Description
February 21st, 2021 12:00:00 AM	Main Event	Expand this into a brief description of what happened and the impact. If multiple lines are necessary, add them here.

Total Amount Lost

The total amount lost has been estimated at $576,000 USD.

How much was lost and how was it calculated? If there are conflicting reports, which are accurate and where does the discrepancy lie?

Immediate Reactions

How did the various parties involved (firm, platform, management, and/or affected individual(s)) deal with the events? Were services shut down? Were announcements made? Were groups formed?

Ultimate Outcome

What was the end result? Was any investigation done? Were any individuals prosecuted? Was there a lawsuit? Was any tracing done?

Total Amount Recovered

There do not appear to have been any funds recovered in this case.

What funds were recovered? What funds were reimbursed for those affected users?

Ongoing Developments

What parts of this case are still remaining to be concluded?

Prevention Policies

Never fall for a time pressured offer like this. Any time that someone (even a celebrity) is rushing you into a decision quickly, back away.

Take the time to think through what is being provided. Does it make sense for someone to send you back twice as much money as you sent them? Ask others for their opinion.

Check the details of a Twitter account carefully to make sure it's the same username. Twitter accounts can often get stolen, in which case the thief can take advantage of the blue checkmark.