Wednesday, February 21, 2018

No, Elon Musk Is Not Giving Away Free Ethereum

Elon Musk, the founder of Los Angeles-based SpaceX, as well as electric vehicle firm Tesla Motors, is not giving you free Ethereum. A "phishing" scam--which has been posted as a reply to Musk's account a number of times in the last few weeks--claims that an "Elon Musk" (with a mis-spelled Twitter account handle) would "give away 5,000 ETH to my followers!"), with a link to a phishing page which makes people think they are getting Ethereum when they send the cryptocurrency to the so-called "Elon Musk"--but really is just siphoning off their accounts. The scam takes advantage of the fact that almost anyone can create a Twitter account with any name, even that of a celebrity or high visibility figure--and most people do not check that it's really the correct account. According to Mashable, the accounts linked to the scam have gathered at least $16,000 in Ethereum from unwitting followers.