A new Bitcoin (BTC) scam is emerging on YouTube and Facebook, one using Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak’s image to lure unsuspecting users to offer funds in return for bogus returns. Reports of scams are nothing new in the cryptocurrency market, which continues in its attempts to keep bad actors in check and prevent the uninformed from falling prey to phishing scams.
A screenshot from the YouTube scam
In a video on YouTube, the scam tells users that if they send anywhere between 0.1 BTC to 25 BTC, they would get between 1 BTC to 400 BTC in return - a blatantly disingenuous exchange that is a common scam in the market. To make matters worse, they use an old video of Wozniak speaking to give the video a sense of legitimacy, which unfortunately may still nab a few victims.
Similarly, Facebook is also experiencing a scam, except this one has to do with the social media giant’s Libra coin (LBR). The scam is making the rounds on Facebook, offering a “pre-sale discount for early investors” - no such thing is happening, of course. Facebook has not even offered an official launch date for its token - which may take more time, given that it has changed its design principles.
Meanwhile, Facebook is now home to Libra scams on the social media platform
Ripple (XRP) recently filed a lawsuit against YouTube for XRP giveaway scams, claiming that not enough was being done to protect hapless investors who were lured into sending their funds to malicious attackers who attempt to impersonate Ripple and its personnel officially.
More controversy followed YouTube, with the platform suspending the account of Ripple’s Chief Technology Officer (CTO), David Schwartz, for “impersonation”, though not many more details were made known. Schwartz moved what videos he could to Ripple-backed platform Cinnamon subsequently.
Additionally, YouTube also suspended the channel of well-known crypto YouTuber Tone Vays, whose account was described as having been removed for “harmful and dangerous content.” Vays’ soon had full functionality to his YouTube account restored, but not before the cryptocommunity made its opinion known. They highlighted the apparent discrimination against crypotcurrency related channels.
The promotion of such scams is sure to draw more ire from the cryptocommunity, who would rather that YouTube spent more time preventing scams from appearing on video recommendations, and measures be put in place to remove such content. This is, in fact, some of the demands that Ripple has made in the lawsuit against the video platform.
