Elon Musk is being thrown back into the crypto fray. This time, he’s at the center of several Twitter-based bitcoin scams, and he’s warning his followers to steer clear.
Bitcoin Scams Just Don’t Leave Elon Musk Alone
Musk has long been at the center of fraudulent activity, in which users of Twitter potentially try to doctor separate accounts to make them look like Musk’s. They utilize his picture and writing style, along with other elements to convince unsuspecting persons why they should send bitcoin and cryptocurrency funds over to designated wallets.
Musk isn’t happy about the situation, going so far as to tweet:
The crypto scam level on Twitter is reaching new levels. This is not cool.
The saddest part of the story is that this has been going on for quite some time. A report issued in November of 2018 alleges that these scammers have already garnered thousands of dollars in crypto funds from people who were unaware that they were being scammed and being led down a wrongful path towards a nonexistent “business opportunity.”
While Twitter has worked hard to ensure that the fraudulent accounts have been suspended, more have popped up at the time of writing and are continuing their path of destruction. Musk continued his tweet with the following:
Report as you soon as you see it. Troll/ bot networks on Twitter are a ‘dire’ problem for adversely affecting public discourse and ripping people off.
It’s strange that someone like Musk repeatedly finds himself involved in the crypto space given that he seems to have no distinct ideas or relations to the industry. Early last year, Musk was rumored to take over as the new chief executive officer of Dogecoin, a cryptocurrency that originally started out as a joke but eventually garnered a market cap exceeding $1 billion.
This rumor was later proved to be what it was: a rumor. There was no truth to the statement, and crypto enthusiasts were disappointed that the owner and chief executive of both Tesla and SpaceX would not be taking a greater stance in their world of digital finance.
This Is Ongoing
In addition, Musk has repeatedly come out to claim that bitcoin, while intriguing, isn’t likely to accomplish what so many say it will. He’s certain it will never overtake cash or become as common as cash and will instead be chalked up as just another (albeit new) financial tool designed for speculative purposes.
In a separate interview, Musk commented that Twitter isn’t doing enough to ensure problems like these don’t occur again in the future. He says that simply suspending accounts isn’t enough, and Twitter should be taking more steps to ensure that parties and conversations on Twitter are real, and that people are indeed speaking with another actual person while engaged in the platform’s services.
