Bitcoin giveaway scam hijacks PUBG Mobile esports stream on YouTube
Bitcoin con artists hijacked an official esports live stream last weekend to peddle a giveaway scam, reports GamingonPhone.
On Saturday, October 2, hackers took control of the PUBG Mobile YouTube channel during the South Asia leg of its Mobile Players League.
Viewers saw Elon Musk‘s likeness promising a crypto giveaway event instead of the popular “battle royale” multiplayer shoot ’em up.
The title of the fraudulent live stream also promised a broadcast of the SpaceX Inspiration4 mission launch. Bitcoin and Dogecoin were featured on the phoney splash page.
However, eagle-eyed viewers will have noted that SpaceX’s all-civilian launch happened in September.
Whoever commandeered PUBG Mobile’s YouTube channel also gave its 3.2 million subscribers access to several private videos, including test streams.
According to Fanbyte, cryptocurrency-related videos briefly replaced much of the channel’s archive content.
PUBG’s channel admins did manage to regain control, with the disruption only lasting for a few minutes. There’s no word on how effective the giveaway scam was.
Bitcoin giveaway scams all over the internet
This isn’t PUBG Mobile’s first tangle with bad actors looking to make a quick crypto cash grab.
In February 2019, Turkish police rumbled a crew who communicated via the game during a $2.5 million crypto heist.
The thieves reportedly drained millions of dollars worth of Bitcoin, Litecoin, and Ethereum from an Istanbul-based crypto company.
And while a hijacked live stream is a novel vehicle for a Bitcoin giveaway con, the internet is awash with scammers posing as celebs to steal crypto.
Read more: [Elon Musk isn’t giving away Bitcoin! ‘Motherload’ scam earned $2M last week]
One crew, led by then 18-year old Graham Ivan Clarke, took over the verified Twitter accounts of businesses and famous faces last year.
Accounts belonging to the likes of Jeff Bezos and Kim Kardashian promised to double any Bitcoin sent to a scam wallet. The ploy appeared to have raked in over $100,000 worth of Bitcoin.
A similar scheme appeared on the Bitcoin.org homepage in September.
[H/T: Fanbyte]