Popular YouTuber Scuba Jake has acknowledged that his channel, which has more than 13 million subscribers and 1.75 billion views since its launch in 2011, was hacked.
On September 9, a bogus giveaway using Bitcoin (BTC) and Ethereum was attempted to deceive unwary viewers by cryptocurrency scammers who had taken control of the channel (ETH).
The scammers profited from the phony cryptocurrency giveaway by taking 1.01 BTC, or around $21,000. The research was based on QR codes that scammers distributed for customers to scan before sending cryptocurrency.
The shared Bitcoin wallet has logged four transactions since it was created, according to Blockchain.com. A total of 1.0107 BTC, which was also cashed out, were received by the wallet.
It is important to note that the lost sum can be bigger because the con artists may have switched wallets during the live show. The investigation of the Ethereum wallet reveals that no other transactions have taken place.
The deception was similar to other fraudulent cases on YouTube where con artists repost an old interview with a well-known figure in the crypto community as a livestream and advertise the bogus giveaway in the information area. Some claim that con artists choose the live option because it lends them more credibility.
How a con artist conned Scuba Jake fans – YouTuber
Under the attack, the con artist altered Scuba Jake’s channel to “MicroStargey US,” pretending to be the American business intelligence company MicroStrategy, which supports cryptocurrencies.
Notably, the con artists broadcast at least two live streams of a previous film with Michael Saylor, the outgoing CEO of MicroStrategy and a proponent of Bitcoin. In this instance, the con artists convinced gullible followers that by paying cryptocurrency, they would be eligible for a prize from Saylor or larger returns.
The scammers specifically targeted the treasure hunt channel, probably due to its huge following given that it has received over 1.7 billion views overall since its launch in 2011. By the time of publication, the channel had been reopened, and on September 10, Jake said as much in an Instagram story.
In general, there have been more instances of scammers using YouTube to target notable people and organizations. According to Finbold, scammers allegedly gained access to the South Korean government’s YouTube channel and posted a crypto video. The account was eventually restored by the government, though.
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