Fraudulent YouTube giveaways targeting Cardano users

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Written on Jul 13, 2020

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Cardano's Charles Hoskinson recently warned investors about a new scam.
The scam, like many before it, involves fraudulent giveaway offers on YouTube.
Such scams have targeted multiple coins' communities, and now, they are targeting Cardano (ADA).

Crypto scams continue to plague the digital currency industry. One of the most popular recent ways for people to scam crypto investors was via fake giveaway announcement via YouTube videos.

Such scams have already targeted crypto investors who focus on numerous different projects, including Bitcoin, Ethereum, XRP, and more. Now, it is Cardano fans’ turn to be targeted.

New Cardano scam threatens investors

According to a recent warning published by Charles Hoskinson, the founder of Cardano, there seems to be a YouTUbe giveaway scam that is targeting the project’s users.

Hoskinson specified that there is footage of a keynote speech, which he himself gave at some point. The speech is used out of context to help promote the scam, and make it seem authentic.

It has come to my attention that a scam has been floating around using my conference keynote to promote a giveaway https://t.co/x2VV2niY68 this is a scam. Please report it to YouTube. We will take legal action if we can against those responsible.

— Charles Hoskinson (@IOHK_Charles) July 12, 2020

Hoskinson tweeted “It has come to my attention that a scam has been floating around using my conference keynote to promote a giveaway https://youtu.be/MqeEhezvI1s this is a scam.” He then asked his community to report the mentioned video to YouTube.

Hoskinson added that the project will take legal action against responsible parties, provided that it becomes a possibility. Video is currently already removed from YouTube thanks to Cardano’s community and its members’ quick reaction.

Cardano price growth may have attracted scammers

Cardano recently saw quite a strong price increase after launching its newest upgrade, Shelley, on July 7th. With the project attracting major amounts of attention in the crypto industry, it is not surprising that scammers attempted to misuse excited investors.

As mentioned, the way the scam works is also rather unsurprising, considering that multiple projects already saw similar scams misusing their popularity.

In the past, scammers assumed the identities of multiple well-known individuals in the crypto industry to try and pull off similar tricks. Some examples include Ethereum’s Vitalik Buterin, as well as Gemini’s Cameron and Tyler Winklevoss.

Now, scammers also attempted to use Hoskinson to trick people out of their money.