TikTok is inundated by a wave of fake cryptocurrency giveaways posted on the video-sharing platform, with almost all of the videos purporting to be topics based on Elon Musk, Tesla, or SpaceX.
Threat actors have created fake cryptocurrency giveaways on social media platforms like Instagram and Twitter for years. These scams claim to be giveaways from celebrities, cryptocurrency exchangesand, more commonly, posing as Elon Musk or SpaceX.
Scammers created hundreds of websites pretending to be crypto exchanges either giveaway sites which asks users to register an account to receive free cryptocurrency. However, as expected, these scams simply steal any deposited crypto and users receive nothing in return.
While you would think that most people would notice these scams, they have had incredible success in the past, with scams stealing millions of dollars in cryptocurrencies from unsuspecting social media users.
TikTok invaded by cryptocurrency scams
With the immense popularity of TikTok, scammers are increasingly flooding the platform with fake cryptocurrency giveaways.
These videos are posted every hour and contain a very fake video of Elon Musk being interviewed on Fox News or other networks, promoting a fake cryptocurrency giveaway.
Some videos are a little more amateur and simply show how to log into a listed website and enter a promo code to receive free Bitcoin.
Source: BleepingComputer
BleepingComputer tested one of the freebies to see how it works and found that almost all of them use the same template, which claims to be a cryptocurrency investment platform.
Source: BleepingComputer
Most of the videos use website domains that look slightly similar, such as bitoxies.[.]com, lunaexio[.]com, altgetxio[.]com, cratopex[.]com.
To enter the giveaway, users are asked to register an account and enter a promo code shared in the TikTok video. Once they enter the code, the site will pretend to deposit Bitcoin into the user's wallet.
For example, the scam site below claimed to deposit .34 Bitcoin into my wallet, worth approximately $9,000.
Source: BleepingComputer
However, when attempting to withdraw the free Bitcoins, you must first activate your account by depositing .005 Bitcoins, worth approximately $132. Since you will never receive bitcoins from the site, scammers generate their income by stealing these "activation" deposits.
Source: BleepingComputer
To make matters worse, you will also be asked to enter KYC information, which threat actors can collect to try to breach your other legitimate cryptocurrency accounts.
As these scams have the potential to generate a lot of revenue for threat actors, they will not go away and social media platforms will continue to be flooded with these fake giveaways.
These scams have become so profitable that the FTC released a report warning that $80 million lost to cryptocurrency investment scams since October 2020. More recently, the Better Business Bureau issued a warning last week about cryptocurrency scams on TikTok.
Therefore, it is essential to recognize that almost all cryptocurrency giveaway sites are a scam, especially those claiming to be from Elon Musk, Tesla, SpaceX, Ark Invest, Gemini, and high-profile exchanges and celebrities promising massive returns.
If you see emails, videos, tweets, or other messages on social media promoting these giveaways, remember that any cryptocurrency you send will be stolen with nothing in return.
