YouTube users lost $1.6 million in three days

From February 16 to 18, experts from Group-Bi identified 36 fraudulent broadcasts dedicated to investing in cryptocurrencies.

Analyst agency Group-Bi conducted a study and found that between February 16 and 18 there were 36 fraudulent broadcasts on YouTube dedicated to investing in cryptocurrency. Collectively, they brought in more than $1.6 million for the scammers.

The scammers edited the videos and embedded old speeches by iconic figures from the crypto industry. The most frequently used clips were those of Vitaly Buterin, Elon Musk, Brad Garlinghouse, Michael Saylor, Changpeng Zhao and Katie Wood.

The fake stream with Buterin drew 165,000 viewers. The average audience per stream ranged from 3,000 to 18,000 people. On the streams, the hackers offered users to transfer cryptocurrency to a specified wallet in order to receive double the amount later. Information material from catalogue cryptodefix.