Pretending to be Elon Musk, A Thief on Twitter Steals IDR 28.5 Billion Crypto Money

The rise of cryptocurrency fraud on social media (Fortune)

JAKARTA – Scamming often targets crypto owners in cyberspace. This fraudster managed to trick cryptocurrency investors and swindle cryptocurrency worth IDR 28.5 billion.

The fraudster pretended to be Tesla boss Elon Musk to prey on his victims. He stole a certain amount of cryptocurrency in the last six months. This was reported by the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) as a United States regulator, on Monday, May 17.

The FTC reveals that fraudsters usually promise refunds that have been doubled from the previous amount.

"Fraud has always been the impersonation of victims promised a large refund and claims that users' crypto assets will be duplicated", the FTC said as quoted by The Verge.

The FTC also reported that the fraudster had been carrying out his stunt by pretending to be Elon Musk for years. His disguise often managed to ensnare social media users who "play" crypto.

The perpetrator performed his crime on social media Twitter. He even chose to use an account name and profile picture similar to Elon Musk's Twitter account.

The fraudster knows Elon Musk's tweets often affect the crypto market and attract comments from many crypto enthusiasts. Taking advantage of the account's similarities, he impersonates Elon Musk to do his crime.

The Fraudster promised the victim's cryptocurrency will be returned in greater quantities than previously sent. Victims will be asked to transfer cryptocurrency to a specific wallet.

His actions have violated Twitter's platform policies. Twitter also went to great lengths to anticipate the rise of this scamming action.

The FTC announces that scams are increasing more each year. By October 2020, the scamming action has managed to snag USD 80 million worth of users' cryptocurrency.

"Fraud rates continue to increase more than 10-fold year on year. The average consumer loses about USD 1.900 for fraud like this".