Elon Musk, CEO of SpaceX, Twitter and electric car maker Tesla, attended an event during VivaTech… [+] Technology Startups and Innovation Fair at the Porte de Versailles Exhibition Center on June 16, 2023 in Paris. (Photo by Joel Saget/AFP) (Photo by Joel Saget/AFP via Getty Images)
AFP via Getty Images
After Elon Musk bought Twitter in October 2022, I noticed a huge increase in scammers trying to sell cryptocurrency using the billionaire’s photos. I wrote about the problem in January, February and March. But Twitter is still full of the same scams. So let’s take a look at what I saw yesterday.
The crypto ad was bought on Twitter by a so-called “verified” user named Mr. Chips. The problem, of course, is that Twitter no longer verifies the identity of any user on the platform. Musk decided to charge $8 per month for the blue check mark, meaning anyone with a few dollars could buy a “verification”.
The Twitter user’s bio includes a jumble of words without spaces, which may indicate that it was created in an automated way: “Son, husband, father, grandfather – I learn something new every day!”
Scam ad on Twitter trying to sell SpaceX-themed crypto tokens using an unauthorized photo of Elon… [+] Musk.
The Twitter ad featured a picture of Musk with folded hands and the words “SpaceX Token Presale Live.” Clicking on the ad takes the user to a landing page that looks like a news outlet or blog. The domain is also hosted on Telegra.ph, presumably to make it look like a reputable news site like UK newspaper The Telegraph. But the .ph top-level domain is for the country Philippines.
A scam ad for cryptocurrency using an unauthorized photo of Elon Musk.
The text on the landing page claims that Elon Musk has announced the launch of a new cryptocurrency token associated with SpaceX, which is not true at all.
“BREAKING NEWS FOR ALL CRYPTO INVESTORS AROUND THE WORLD! Elon Musk, the visionary CEO of Tesla and SpaceX, has just announced the launch of the Official SpaceX Token, and the Pre-Sale is now open for a limited time only,” the website reads.
The website states that people can buy the crypto for “$1.70 per token,” which suggests that this is some sort of bargain.
“Investing in SpaceX tokens not only gives you the chance to shape the future of space exploration and blockchain technology, but also the opportunity to win incredible prizes, including a chance to go to Mars. Lucky token holders will stand a chance to win prizes from Tesla, The Boring Company and Neuralink, as well as an exclusive trip to the Red Planet,” the fake news outlet page reads.
If it all sounds too good to be true, that’s because it is true. There is also a link on the landing page to direct users to an area where they can buy scam crypto. That website, which is hosted at spacexcrypto.com, arguably looks far more sophisticated than the fake Telegraph page.
A scam crypto page trying to sell SpaceX cryptocurrency has nothing to do with Elon Musk.
spacex crypto
Why have a landing page at all? Why doesn’t the Twitter ad go straight to the fake SpaceX page? I suspect it has something to do with the way Twitter displays the ads. Twitter could potentially blacklist any ads that link to a site like spacexcrypto.com, where the current scam takes place. But by first directing the user to a site like telegram.ph or another news-themed landing page set up by the scammers, scammers are harder to block.
As I said, I’ve seen a lot of scam ads this year. It is unclear how much money Twitter is making from these scams. Twitter did not respond to emailed questions on Sunday. I’ll update this article if I get a reply.
Whatever you do, don’t try to buy SpaceX crypto. This is a scam. And given how common ads are on Twitter, this is a scam that at least a few people are bound to be falling for.
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