Crypto YouTubers fall victim to hacking and scamming attempt

Hackers attacked a fig of fashionable crypto YouTuber accounts astatine immoderate constituent during the day of Jan. 23. The accounts posted unauthorized videos with substance directing viewers to nonstop wealth to the hacker's wallet.

Accounts who look to person been targeted by the onslaught include: ‘BitBoy Crypto’, ‘Altcoin Buzz’, ‘Box Mining’, ‘Floyd Mayweather’, ‘Ivan connected Tech’, and ‘The Moon’ among others.

BREAKING: Dozens of Crypto YouTubers person had their accounts hijacked by hackers promoting a fake crypto giveaway scam. Hacked accounts include:@IvanOnTech@boxmining@aantonop@themooncarl@Bitboy_Crypto@mmcrypto@Altcoinbuzzio@FloydMayweather@crypto_banter@CoinMarketCap pic.twitter.com/ykXkZUh9cO

— Mr. Whale (@CryptoWhale) January 23, 2022

The Binance Smart Chain wallet address that was listed connected the fraudulent videos lone had a full of 9 transactions successful BNB astatine the clip of writing, with a full worth of astir $850.

Michael Gu told Cointelegraph that his YouTube transmission Boxmining posted a video without his permission. “Luckily we caught it wrong 2 mins of the video going unrecorded and managed to delete it,” helium said. “By that clip determination were already views and comments from my community.”

He added that helium had done an interior expanse and recovered nary viruses oregon bugs that whitethorn person fixed the hackers entree to his account. “Seems similar YouTube mightiness beryllium responsible,” helium said.

Many Crypto Youtubers (including me) got hacked contiguous - each publishing a scam video astatine astir the aforesaid clip - @IvanOnTech @aantonop @Bitboy_Crypto @Altcoinbuzzio @FloydMayweather @crypto_banter @CoinMarketCap
I person 2FA enabled. pic.twitter.com/c8z5qmJ3bT

— Boxmining (@boxmining) January 23, 2022

One Reddit post by idiosyncratic “9Oh8m8” suggested that it appears arsenic though the hackers were capable to summation entree to the accounts utilizing a SIM swap scam, which would person enabled them to bypass two-factor authentication (2FA). They added:

“They are each posting with a rubric similar "ONE WORLD CRYPTOCURRENCY". They person an code successful vid and statement to nonstop your USDT/USDC/BNB/ETH to person a caller crypto called OWCY.”

However, Gu wasn’t convinced that the hack was a effect of a SIM swap, telling Cointelegraph that determination were nary logins connected his idiosyncratic Google account. “If it was a SIM swap I would suffer entree to my telephone etc and that didn’t happen,” helium said.

“What we noticed was connected the BRAND relationship (which doesn’t person a login. YouTube marque accounts are connected to personal) determination was a login from the Philippines. Very apt this is either a hack connected YouTube broadside oregon a rogue employee. That’s however they got truthful galore radical astatine the aforesaid time.”

Founder and CEO of the Altcoin Buzz YouTube transmission Shash Gupta added that they noticed thing was amiss astatine astir 1 AM Singapore clip connected Sunday nighttime erstwhile an unauthorized video was posted to their channel.

“It’s beauteous unclear what happened. I’m talking to Youtube to get to recognize the substance and debar specified further breaches.”

Related: YouTube channels hacked and rebranded for livestreaming crypto scams

Another crypto YouTuber Richard Heart tweeted astatine 9:30PM UTC that his transmission had been banned during the mediate of a livestream, indicating that YouTube was astir apt alert of the event.

Hello again @YouTubecreators My transmission was conscionable banned successful the mediate of a livestream. I deliberation it mightiness person to bash with each of the different youtubers that were hacked astatine the aforesaid clip today. Could you cheque please, thanks! @YouTube @YouTube

— Richard Heart PulseX.com! Called the Bitcoin top! (@RichardHeartWin) January 23, 2022

Cointelegraph reached retired to YouTube and a fig of different crypto contented creators who were affected by the hack but had not received immoderate further accusation astatine the clip of writing.