As Elon Musk reported to be the richest man in the world at the beginning of the year, many scammers or hackers use his name to scam investors. This illegal activity is reported to have increased rapidly from October 2020 until now.

The man behind Tesla and SpaceX, Elon Musk, is making noise on the internet lately as rumored to be working with Dogecoin’s development. Since we all know how strong Elon Musk’s influence is, the scammers took this as an advantage to profit.

A huge percentage of scamming is reported using well-known names, many other crypto influencers, as well as celebrities and government authorities, who were impersonated and said to be conducting a “Giveaway”.

This specific giveaway was done through a series of live streams on YouTube while Elon Musk was on the Saturday Night Live Show. People discovered these fake videos when they were trying to search for the original show. This fake live video encouraged victims to visit a fraudulent website then ask to send DOGE/USD to a specific wallet address in return for double and much larger amounts of money. In a latest report from FTC, the scammers were able to get $5M worth of DOGE solely from this incident.

The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) said on Monday that “People have reported sending more than $2 million in cryptocurrency to Elon Musk impersonators over just the past six months.”

Many investors feel discouraged after losing a huge amount of money; as an example, a British woman who invested her bitcoins quickly after hearing the fake BBC news that could double his investment if she chooses to invest in the site provided.

As the digital currency is developing, many attackers will take this advantage to ride along with the development. A reminder to always verify the link or the sender and never trust any “double your money” scheme, particularly if you are sending them your DOGE or any other coins.