A bitcoin user paid the equivalent of 3 BTC, or $179,000, to a “confirmed” giveaway fraud imitating Michael Saylor, chief executive officer of MicroStrategy.
The incident was reported on November 21 by the cryptocurrency tracking program Whale Alert. The robbery took place on the website mstrategy.io/bit, a “proven” scam platform used by con artists to imitate Saylor, according to the report.
When BeInCrypto tried to access the website, it got an error notice.
Before asking people to pay bitcoin to a particular address, the fraudsters usually masquerade as a celebrity, in this case, Michael Saylor. They claim to multiply the bitcoin sent by investors – the giveaway – but instead take the money.
The crooks took $179,000 from a BTC customer this time. The principal bitcoin address in question has received more than $4.16 million in total, or 72.14 BTC, from 49 transactions at the time of writing. The address is currently worth $590,000 or 16.7 BTC.
Cryptocurrency fraud is on the rise
Saylor has been a vocal proponent of cryptocurrencies. MicroStrategy has purchased up to 114,042 BTC since August of last year, making it the highest Bitcoin holding of any publicly traded business.
At current market prices, the holdings are worth more than $6.57 billion.
Scammers aren’t just impersonating Saylor. They also imitate Elon Musk, the CEO of Tesla, as well as government institutions and well-known corporations.
In the case of Musk, the US Federal Trade Commission (FTC) reported that over the six months leading up to May 2021, internet thieves took more than $2 million in fraudulent giveaways related to the renowned billionaire.
Victim of its own success
In recent years, there has been a significant increase in cryptocurrency fraud. The business looks to have become a victim of its own success, as fraud cases are frequently tied to the rapid rise in digital asset prices.
Last year, cryptocurrency scammers targeted Twitter and gained control of high-profile accounts, including Musk’s. From the hack, the crooks made off with almost $120,000 in bitcoin.
Whale Alert has reported that it is keeping an eye on 9,214 scam websites and 92,955 bogus cryptocurrency addresses. It has monitored nearly $803 million in stolen digital assets around the world so far.
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