YouTube is ceaselessly focused in hacks particularly to hold out crypto scams. The severity of crypto scams on YouTube could be quantified by the truth that in July 2020, Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak ended up suing Google and YouTube over Bitcoin giveaway scams being carried out in his identify.
Now, one other viral YouTuber Jake Koehler (aka Scuba Jake) has suffered an analogous hack during which his channel “DALLMYD” was compromised to run a crypto rip-off and steal funds from his subscribers.
It’s value noting that Jake’s channel has greater than 13 million subscribers and boasts 1.75 billion views since its creation in 2011. The American YouTuber is understood for importing scuba-diving movies the place he goes underwater on treasure hunts and finds/returns misplaced objects together with smartphones, devices, and jewellery.
In accordance with the monetary information and crypto evaluation weblog Finbold, the hacking occurred on September ninth, 2022. Reportedly, crypto scammers hijacked the channel and tried to defraud harmless followers of Scuba Jake in a pretend giveaway scheme involving cryptocurrencies Bitcoin and Ethereum.
What’s worse, apparently scammers managed to steal 1.01 BTC (round $21,000). This evaluation was based mostly on the QR codes scammers shared with customers to scan earlier than sending crypto.
Alternatively, a take a look at Blockchain.com confirms that the scammers’ Bitcoin pockets shared with customers acquired 4 transactions, and since its creation, it has acquired round 1.0107 BTC. That’s the identical quantity the scammers stole from Jake’s subscribers, however it might be larger as a result of the scammers may need used a number of wallets in the course of the reside stream. It’s value noting that no transaction was made within the Ethereum pockets.
Scammers additionally modified Jake’s channel identify to MicroStrategy US to copy the agency MicroStrategy, a USA’s crypto-friendly enterprise intelligence agency. Scammers hosted two reside streams of an outdated video showcasing ex-CEO of the corporate and Bitcoin fanatic Michael Saylor.
The scammers deceived unsuspecting subscribers of Jake into sending cryptocurrency and receiving a prize or larger reward from Saylor. They focused the channel due to Jake’s large following.
Though Jake has already confirmed the hack on his Instagram story however on the time of writing his channel was unavailable to viewers. A seek for his YouTube channel exhibits video collaboration with different YouTubers whereas his channel is nowhere to be discovered on YouTube.
Associated Information
- Botnet discovered utilizing YouTube to illegally mine cryptocurrency
- Common YouTube gaming channel hacked to run crypto rip-off
- YouTube deletes 2 million channels and 51 million movies over scams
- YouTube scammers impersonated Elon Musk, SpaceX; stole $150k in BTC
- British Navy’s Twitter and YouTube Accounts Hacked to Rip-off Crypto Customers
