this post was submitted on 29 Oct 2024
721 points (97.5% liked)

Technology

58992 readers
4188 users here now

This is a most excellent place for technology news and articles.


Our Rules


  1. Follow the lemmy.world rules.
  2. Only tech related content.
  3. Be excellent to each another!
  4. Mod approved content bots can post up to 10 articles per day.
  5. Threads asking for personal tech support may be deleted.
  6. Politics threads may be removed.
  7. No memes allowed as posts, OK to post as comments.
  8. Only approved bots from the list below, to ask if your bot can be added please contact us.
  9. Check for duplicates before posting, duplicates may be removed

Approved Bots


founded 1 year ago
MODERATORS
 

Gizmodo filed a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request with the FTC to get complaints sent to the federal agency about crypto scams that pretend to be affiliated with Musk. We obtained 247 complaints, all filed between Feb. and Oct. of this year, and they’re filled with stories of people who believed they were watching ads for authentic crypto investments sanctioned by Musk on social media.

The ads sometimes featured the names of Musk’s various companies, like SpaceX, Tesla, and X, while other times they utilized Musk’s association with neo-fascist presidential candidate Donald Trump.

...

Some people in the complaints believed they were talking directly with Musk, a sadly common story that has popped up in news reports before. But they weren’t talking with Musk, of course. They were communicating with scammers engaging in what’s called pig butchering—the name for a type of fraud popularized in the mid-2010s where scammers extract as much money as possible through flattery and promises of tremendous profits if the victim just “invests” where they’re told.

(page 2) 35 comments
sorted by: hot top controversial new old
[–] [email protected] 21 points 1 day ago

Idiots who fall for Elon Musks genius persona and think they are smart also fall for crypto scams? Shocking I tell you, shocking

[–] [email protected] 31 points 1 day ago (2 children)

If only they had a safe place to put their money that was protected by law and insured against losses.

[–] [email protected] -3 points 1 day ago (2 children)
[–] [email protected] 16 points 1 day ago

The only people buying into crypto scams are westerners anyway because no one else has the money

load more comments (1 replies)
load more comments (1 replies)
[–] [email protected] 25 points 1 day ago (2 children)

I saw one of these and it took me a second to realize it was a scam. I'm a spaceflight geek and as much as a tool as Musk is, there's heavy overlap in spaceflight and SpaceX.

On Youtube there was a purported "live launch update" livestream. I was confused because I knew there were no launches scheduled that day of any kind much less SpaceX. What I saw was Musk on a stage outdoors apparently talking about a new SpaceX crypto product and the voice, which sounded exactly like Musk's talked about giving away free crypto the only thing you had to do was buy it, then share you wallet info and Musk would double it.

Besides this smelling very suspect, I realized that there were never close shots when musk was talking, so you couldn't see the lips match the words being said audibly and I knew it was a scam.

I can absolutely see how the greedy would get scammed by this.

[–] [email protected] 10 points 1 day ago (1 children)

I can absolutely see how the greedy would get scammed by this.

Really? The only way that could sound more like a scam is if there were a chyron at the bottom spelling out THIS IS A SCAM.

[–] [email protected] 15 points 1 day ago (2 children)

It sounds like a scam because I'm distilling all the things that told me it was a scam. I'm glad you can take what I'm tell you is a scam and say "yes thats a scam". Congrats?

Musk also does stupid stuff that loses money. He's (likely illegally) giving away money to buy votes in some states. Musk is also a known cryptobro. The idea that Musk would be giving away crypto to try to build influence or attention isn't far fetched.

load more comments (2 replies)
[–] [email protected] 10 points 1 day ago

I saw one of these too on YouTube – it easily popped up early on my home page.

I'd consider myself a tech savvy person and even then, this took a minute to spot the scam. I can totally see someone falling for it.

[–] [email protected] 30 points 1 day ago (1 children)

Schadenfreude popcorn 🍿 time.

[–] [email protected] 13 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago) (2 children)

A lot of the people falling for these scams are straight up mentally ill or disabled.

It's funny to think of some blowhard yacht guy getting fleeced. Less funny to see an adult with Down's Syndrome or Schizophrenia or Dementia or a child who got hold of a parent's credit card and sucked in by some Mr. Beast tier grift get played.

[–] [email protected] 8 points 1 day ago (2 children)
[–] [email protected] 8 points 1 day ago

The article said nothing about intellectual disability, but it did suggest some older people contextually from their complaints. Here’s an actual citation from one of the complaints that I think sums it up perfectly:

Now, i’m an intelligent [person], at least I consider myself that to be. I am a huge fan of elon musk and tesla. I only bit into this because it did sound too good to be true.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago)

It's just how basic demographics analysis works. There's a lot more people who are struggling with mental health problems/mental disabilities that make them more prone to believing scams. And so many games and storefronts use dark patters to make it extremely easy to make undesired purchases or have no safeguards to prevent children from using their parents credit card for purchases.

All these kinds of people vastly outnumber dumb finance bros on their yachts making stupid money decisions.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 day ago

Don't have empathy. It's not allow

[–] [email protected] 16 points 1 day ago (1 children)

Ngl I always hated crypto but this is like best argument for crypto. Wtf I'm even doing at my job, I should be doing something actually important like scramming Elon Musk fans.

[–] [email protected] 6 points 1 day ago (2 children)

I like the idea of crypto, vut i hate crypto bros.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 1 day ago (1 children)

I don't really like idea, I can't see how it could be done in anyway that doesn't lead to already rich people insider trading it.

load more comments (1 replies)
[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago) (1 children)

I like the basic fundamental idea, but the implementation is dreadful.

I'm all for coming up with some kind of method for validating decentralized information but the system that cryptocurrencies use is highly inefficient.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 21 hours ago

The validation is cheap, every node does that constantly. Do you mean proof-of-work mining?

[–] [email protected] 7 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago) (1 children)

This has been news in Canada for about a year, story after story about people getting sucked in and losing tens to hundreds of thousands of dollars. When it's not Musk it's Justin Trudeau, same M.O.

You'd think if these people read the news outlets they share their stories with that they would have seen one of the articles already because they're so common. But then again people still take Sunwing package vacations then complain to the news when it's subpar so idk.

Edit to add I blame big tech more than the scam victims, they have no protections in place and are profiting off the scammers immorally as well. They should have to manually review these things or at least be responsive to user reports and they're doing neither. I actually know someone who got banned from Meta products for reporting too many scam ads.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 1 day ago

You’d think if these people read the news outlets they share their stories with that they would have seen one of the articles already because they’re so common.

Crypto scams have overwhelmed the news feeds. I see scams showing up on the front page of my fucking retirement account. Dumb money retail investors chasing fictitious capital are setting off a feeding frenzy.

[–] [email protected] 6 points 1 day ago
[–] [email protected] 7 points 1 day ago (1 children)

Here is the secret all crypto is a scam. People just have not figured it out yet.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 21 hours ago

Well the second half is true.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 1 day ago
[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 day ago

Dork Maggot.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 day ago

But they weren’t talking with Musk, of course.

😆😆😆😆😆

load more comments
view more: ‹ prev next ›