Hackers attacked several popular accounts of some YouTubers sometime in the afternoon of January 23. Accounts posted unauthorized videos with text directing viewers to send money to the hacker’s wallet.
The accounts that appear to have been the target of the attack are: ‘BitBoy Crypto’, ‘Altcoin Buzz’, ‘Box Mining’, ‘Floyd Mayweather’, ‘Ivan on Tech’, and ‘The Moon’ among others.
BREAKING: Dozens of Crypto YouTubers have had their accounts hijacked by hackers promoting a fake crypto giveaway scam. Hacked accounts include:@IvanOnTech@boxmining@aantonop@themooncarl@Bitboy_Crypto@mmcrypto@Altcoinbuzzio@FloydMayweather@crypto_banter@CoinMarketCap pic.twitter.com/ykXkZUh9cO
— Mr. Whale (@CryptoWhale) January 23, 2022
BREAKING: Dozens of YouTubers who make cryptocurrency content have had their accounts hijacked by hackers promoting a fake cryptocurrency scam. Hacked accounts include: @IvanOnTech@boxmining@aantonop@themooncarl@Bitboy_Crypto@mmcrypto@Altcoinbuzzio@FloydMayweather@crypto_banter@CoinMarketCap
The Binance Smart Chain wallet address featured in the scam videos only had a total of 9 BNB transactions at the time of writing this article, with a total value of about USD 850.
Michael Gu told Cointelegraph that his Boxmining YouTube channel posted a video without his permission. “Luckily we saw it two minutes after the video went live and we managed to delete it,” he said.. “At that time there were already views and comments from my community.”
He added that he had done an internal sweep and found no viruses or bugs that could have given hackers access to his account. “It looks like YouTube could be responsible,” he said..
Many Crypto Youtubers (including me) got hacked today – all publishing a scam video at around the same time – @IvanOnTech @aantonop @Bitboy_Crypto @Altcoinbuzzio @FloydMayweather @crypto_banter @CoinMarketCap
I have 2FA enabled. pic.twitter.com/c8z5qmJ3bT— Boxmining (@boxmining) January 23, 2022
Many Crypto YouTubers (including me) got hacked today. They all posted a video of a scam around the same time. @IvanOnTech @aantonop @Bitboy_Crypto @Altcoinbuzzio @FloydMayweather @crypto_banter @CoinMarketCap
I have 2FA activated
A Reddit post by user “9Oh8m8” suggested that it appears that the hackers were able to access the accounts using a SIM swapping scam, which would have allowed them to bypass two-factor authentication (2FA). They added:
“Everyone is posting videos with the title “ONE WORLD CRYPTOCURRENCY”. They have an address in the video and description to send your USDT/USDC/BNB/ETH to receive a new cryptocurrency called OWCY.”
However, Gu was not convinced that the hack was the result of a SIM swap; told Cointelegraph that there were no logins to his personal Google account. “If it was a SIM swap, I would lose access to my phone, etc., and that didn’t happen,” he said..
“What we noticed was that on the BRAND account (which doesn’t have a login. YouTube brand accounts are connected to personal ones) there was a login from the Philippines. This is most likely a hack by YouTube or an unscrupulous employee. This is how they got so many people at the same time.”
The founder and CEO of the YouTube channel Altcoin Buzz, Shash Gupta added that he realized something was wrong around 1am Singapore time on Sunday night when an unauthorized video was posted on his channel..
“It is not very clear what happened. I am talking to YouTube to understand the matter and prevent further violations of this type.
Another YouTuber cryptocurrency content creator, Richard Heart, tweeted at 9:30PM UTC that his channel had been banned during the middle of a livestream, indicating that YouTube was probably aware of the event..
hello again @YouTubecreators My channel was just banned in the middle of a livestream. I think it might have to do with all of the other youtubers that were hacked at the same time today. Could you check please, thanks! @Youtube @Youtube
— Richard Heart PulseX.com! Called the Bitcoin top! (@RichardHeartWin) January 23, 2022
Hello again @YouTubecreators. My channel just got banned in the middle of a livestream. I think it might have to do with all the other youtubers getting hacked at the same time today. Could you check it please? @YouTube @YouTube
– Richard Heart PulseX.com! Called the top of Bitcoin!
Cointelegraph has contacted YouTube and several other cryptocurrency content creators who were affected by the hack., but had not received any additional information at the time of writing this article.
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