Every time a prominent member of the crypto space sends a tweet, a Twitter bot who may or may not be impersonating the original poster posts a response urging users to send Ether to a specific address with the promise of huge short term returns that will sent back to anyone who participates.
People in the cryptocurrency community commonly refer to these scammers as ETHBots. Even Elon Musk commented on how efficiently the scam operates. Musk tweeted on the subject “I want to know who is running the Etherium scambots! Mad skillz …”
Adam Guerbuez, who runs a popular YouTube channel dedicated to cryptocurrency trading and general advocacy of cryptocurrency and blockchain technology actually had the chance to get inside the head of someone involved in one of these scams. Guerbuez reached out to one of the accounts sending out these scam tweets and was able to get some answers about the process.
A very telling aspect of the scam was revealed right away when Guerbuez asked the scammer why he took part in such scams. “Easy Money.” Was the scammers response. The scammer added that the whole operation is basically automated and that the only step of the process that needed human intervention was cashing out.
Guerbuez also found out that these operations can haul in millions of dollars in only months. The money comes in so quickly and easily that these scammers don’t care about the morals involved in the questionable process.
They don’t care about the victims losing money and actually view them as careless gamblers. The hiesters even deride the victims by calling them “mooches.”
The scammer interviewed by Guerbuez doesn’t view what he’s doing as illegal.
“There is no crime in this promotion, the worst that could happen is someone would try to sue, but who do you think would make a lawsuit for .5 eth or whatever? So knowing this, it is open season for all to get paid.”
These scams are prominent and shown no signs of going away anytime soon. The scammers still have plenty of gullible crypto-newbies to victimize and little to no repercussion for their actions.
