Scammers are streaming Michael Bloomberg speeches on YouTube, claiming that the one-time presidential candidate is giving abroad complimentary Bitcoin (BTC).

Michael Bloomberg BTC Giveaway

On May 14, there were at least ii such incidents with an apparent combined audience of virtually 60,000. The scammers asked viewers to send between 0.one BTC and 250 BTC to the video's Bitcoin accost, promising to return double their value. The channel alleged that Michael Bloomberg was facilitating crypto adoption through this mechanism. All related videos have since been removed by YouTube.

Screenshots Of YouTube Streams. Source: Cointelegraph.

According to the information from WHOis.net, a domain associated with the scam was registered on May 14 2022 — evidently, through a Russian registrar.

Screenshot of bloombergbtc.net domain registration. Source: WHOis.net

Scammers earned one BTC?

The Bitcoin address that the hackers provided received vi transactions betwixt May 14 and May 15. The transactions totaled 0.92355084 BTC, or approximately $8,800. It is non clear if these funds came from victims or if the scammers sent their own coins to the address to make information technology look more than legitimate. Plain, no Bitcoins have been sent dorsum from this address.

Scammers' Bitcoin address. Source: blockchain.com

Cointelegraph reached out to Chainalysis to see if they could provide additional information on these transactions. A company representative told us that the Bitcoin likely came from victims. They continued:

"Nosotros took a closer look and it looks like well-nigh of the other deposit addresses originated from exchanges, so our best estimate is that these deposits are from victims."

Furthermore, Chainlanysis volition attribute this accost to scam-artist activities in their database. This will make it more hard for the scammers to cash out their ill-gotten gains.

Cryptocurrency crime is a multibillion-dollar industry. Social media platforms do not e'er appear to exist well equipped to prevent it or react quickly when scams such equally this appear.