
Fake SpaceX YouTube channel with 36k live viewers scams people out of money - ajuc
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tYMWg_gQCUQ
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katmannthree
It always strikes me as odd how prevalent the bitcoin scams are on twitter.
Virtually all of Elon Musk's tweets have a very prominently placed "BTC party"
scam shown as a high-level reply.

As an example, from his latest non-pinned tweet, the second visible reply is a
BTC scam: [https://i.imgur.com/ibO94uG.png](https://i.imgur.com/ibO94uG.png)

How does twitter have such a high tolerance for this?

~~~
GhostVII
I don't use twitter often, but looking over the UI I don't see any ability to
flag tweets - am I missing this or does it not exist in any visible place?
Pretty much every other social media (Reddit, Youtube, Facebook) seems to have
the ability to flag posts. That would make it much easier for them to identify
and remove these kinds of replies. Combine that with no upvote/downvote system
and people have no way of pushing down spam.

~~~
mfkp
Click on the caret (dropdown) at the top right of the tweet, then "Report
Tweet".

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mike_d
On the associated website they have this gem:

> If the transaction does not process properly, please try by sending the same
> amount to the BTC address again, and it should go through. Your original
> transaction will be refunded as you can only participate once.

~~~
bryanrasmussen
The Kenyon Review only pays $.05 per word, this definitely seems to be one of
the better markets for fiction.

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dawnerd
This same group has been taking over ton of channels. It's amazing Youtube
hasn't found a way to detect it. Reporting it does nothing as some are STILL
up months past reporting.

Also interesting is these scammers are using fake viewers and fake chat
messages to make it look more legit.

~~~
dandelany
Seems like it's exploiting a hole in YT's reporting process. I stumbled on a
few of these streams last week and tried to report the accounts for
"impersonating". However, on the reporting page, you're asked to specify which
of the users' _videos_ or _comments_ are violating the rules, but you're not
given any option to specify a _live stream_ video. Since the accounts did not
post any other videos or comments, there was no content for me to tag.

I submitted the reports anyway and, shortly thereafter, got an email from
Youtube telling me "Unfortunately the information you provided in your report
to YouTube does not meet our impersonation reporting guidelines." Seems they
automatically ignore any reports without tagged videos/comments.

~~~
dawnerd
YouTube/Google need to be more aggressive about blocking logins from new
locations. The account owners don’t know until subscribers point it out.

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sneeuwpopsneeuw
They hacked a large food channel that had 133k+ subs. When you go to the
cumunity tab you can still see some of the original stuff still being there.
(in case it gets removed to
[https://imgur.com/72nofl0.png](https://imgur.com/72nofl0.png))

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ajuc
It asks for bitcoins and promises to pay back (I assume it never happens).

There's a lot of live viewers, probably many bots, but some real people too.
It's high in youtube algorithm, I reported it obviously, but it will take a
long time.

~~~
mfkp
I reported it as well, it's a sophisticated scam. Look at all the bots in the
chat talking about how they got double bitcoins.

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thinkingkong
This scam has been repeated a couple of times. On the weekend they repeated an
interview with Chamath Palihapitiya from 2-3 years ago and said it was a
"Bitcoin Giveaway" where you got two for one bitcoin. It was hilarious but I
never checked to see the transactions that had occurred against the target
address.

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sxp
[https://www.blockchain.com/btc/address/1ELonMUSK14JSGNYAcPJN...](https://www.blockchain.com/btc/address/1ELonMUSK14JSGNYAcPJNqubuFByZPyjcj)
is the address the BTC was sent to. 2.5 BTC ~= $24k

~~~
solotronics
some of this might be the scammers seeding the address themselves so people
see others sending to it?

~~~
sxp
There are 0 BTC of outgoing transactions. A good Ponzi scammer would payout on
small deposits so that the person is convinced to put in a bigger deposit.
This was a popular Eve online scam and it was even more fun because the
'victim' sometimes managed to get a payout and exit the scam with a profit.

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W-Stool
Who exactly falls for this kind of scam? I mean, "send us X and you'll get 2X
in return" isn't too awfully different than those scams years ago for plans
for a perpetual motion machine or the secrets to a 300 mpg car engine.

~~~
packet_nerd
Ha, I remember one of my brothers and a bunch of people from my hometown got
all into those perpetual motion machines. They bought the "plans" and went on
and on about how revolutionary it was, what a good deal the few hundred
dollars for the plans were, and how there's a global conspiracy by energy
companies to stop this information from getting out. Despite trying and never
quite getting it to work, I think my brother even today still believes in it.

I guess the answer to your question would be "normal every day folks." But,
still, how does the thinking that leads them to believe this stuff even
actually work? I don't get it.

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Aperocky
I've seen it because youtube algorithm recommended it to me.

~~~
qayxc
T H I S is the real issue here - YT actively promoting these scams to people,
because they've replaced actual people with faulty algorithms...

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edw
Occasionally I fall asleep and awake to a channel like this, usually one
showing science television content with an extremely active stream of real-
time commenters. This gestalt of this channel is nearly identical. Has anyone
written up an explanation of these vaguely (or not so vaguely) scammy YouTube
channels? Or posted a YouTube video, more likely?

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Nextgrid
The problem here is that there is absolutely zero incentive for YouTube to fix
this.

These bots still contribute to their "growth" and "engagement" and user
numbers. Some of them might even be real users being paid to participate,
which means YouTube is still showing them ads and profiting off them.

We need proper regulations where platforms should be considered complicit of
these scams when they fail to remove such content or outright promote it. As
it stands, is is absolutely irresponsible from them to let any new account set
up a livestream, boost its popularity with fake viewers and the algorithms
will do the rest and start recommending it to _real_ viewers.

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bdcravens
I've seen this at least twice before - once with a Microsoft video, another
with a Coinbase. (The Coinbase one was quite clever because early on, Coinbase
would put a bonus amount in your account when you signed up, so the videos
seemed to add a bit of validity). In each case, they use a channel with a lot
of subscribers (not sure if they are hacks, or they purchase a channel)

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cbanek
I remember seeing this on youtube (maybe a week ago? same scam, same idea, I'm
not sure if it was the same channel) and clicking on it and being like, this
is a scam, but a well-targeted one. I was looking to see how it had anything
to do with SpaceX and big surprise, that answer was nothing.

Looking through my watch history I can't seem to find it though...

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oplav
Looks like that address in the video has about ~2.5 BTC received:
[https://www.blockchain.com/btc/address/1ELonMUSK14JSGNYAcPJN...](https://www.blockchain.com/btc/address/1ELonMUSK14JSGNYAcPJNqubuFByZPyjcj)

~~~
richbradshaw
Is 4 now, only 30 minutes later...

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u0a92
seems to be some russian guy who calls himself Maxim Sakulevich (from
youtube's url
[https://www.youtube.com/user/MaximSakulevich/community](https://www.youtube.com/user/MaximSakulevich/community)
which you'll get by clicking on the 'SpaceX' channel name and on community)...
instagram:
[https://www.instagram.com/maxim_sakulevich/](https://www.instagram.com/maxim_sakulevich/)
... and some blog
[https://maximsakulevich.blogspot.com/](https://maximsakulevich.blogspot.com/)
... definitely a modern way of making/stealing money

~~~
detaro
That guy likely is a _victim_ here: Channels get hacked and rebranded for
those scams to get an initial subscriber base.

~~~
u0a92
Good point. So who should be responsible? Mr. Sakulevich/channel owners?
Youtube/platform provider? Scammer (probably won't take responsibility)?
Victims who fail for it? Educating all people (including channel owners and
scammers) probably won't work/ won't be fast enough against fast paced
internet technology and 'I want to use it now without effort' mentality.

~~~
anonymousab
Sometimes the channels are derelict - someone created the account, maybe to
leave a comment, then never really used it again. Maybe you could argue that
people should be responsible for shutting down unused accounts. I wouldn't
agree but that's not unreasonable.

But it is often the case that the owners of these accounts try to get access
back from YouTube, to no avail. Several animators I subscribed to had their
accounts hacked (maybe poor passwords) and filled with crypto scam nonsense
and the process of getting them back was hopeless and took many months of
concerted effort from them and their fans.

At that point, though the scammers are of course primarily at fault, I'd also
place blame on YouTube for allowing the scam-turned accounts to remain.
Protection for user content that is sometimes illegal should cease when a host
repeatedly fails to remove that (specific instance of) content in good faith.

~~~
hckr_news
Also probably shouldn’t use your real name on any site nevermind YouTube. From
that alone we have almost a clear idea of his life, his Instagram page, his
children. Very scary stuff. I’d hate to be this public about my own life.

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dotJoel
They ran one with Oprah clips recently too.

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alex_young
[video]

