Have You been seeing a lot of adverts on Twitter recently that feature Elon Musk’s face, promoting fraudulent crypto tokens? You’re not the only one. Last week I wrote about the dodgy use of paid ads featuring Musk and his companies to promote worthless cryptocurrencies. And it looks like the trend is continuing.
“Neura declares their Blockchain Project,” reads one ad I found this past Sunday.
Click on the ad and it will take you to a page with false promises. “Breaking news for all crypto investors worldwide!”
The page claims that a “pre-sale” is underway for a Neuralink-branded cryptocurrency, which is simply not true. The token sale is only real in the sense that fraudsters are trying to get your money.
“The visionary CEO of Tesla and Neuralink, Elon Musk, has just announced the launch of the official Neuralink Token, and the Pre-Sale is now open for a limited time only,” the scam page reads.
In reality, Elon Musk has never released his own cryptocurrency. And he’s never endorsed a coin related to Tesla, Neuralink, SpaceX, or any other company. If you buy the coin, which is said to be worth $2.50 each, you’re just giving your money away to scammers.
Previously, the press office was quick to respond to journalists’ queries, but since Musk took over they have yet to answer my questions. It’s still unclear whether Twitter is being used to scam crypto. But whether they know it or not, the company is definitely making money by taking ad money from scammers.
If you click through the ad I saw on Sunday, you eventually arrive on a website that looks like an official Neuralink site. And it’s this shell game that apparently allows scammers to get their ads approved. Evidently, the content being linked to looks harmless enough when it’s reviewed by Twitter’s procedures—assuming they still have some kind of ad review process—and then the content at those links is changed once the ad is live.
A quick glance at Twitter reveals that crypto scammers are still trying to take advantage of Elon Musk’s image to peddle their products. On Sunday, I saw an advertisement featuring a deepfake of the SpaceX CEO, wearing a logo of the company and a message that promised free advice on investments.
The advertisement seemed to be taken from CoinTelegraph, a legitimate cryptocurrency news outlet. Similar scams have been found in recent days, often promising a free brain implant with a chip from Neuralink or a trip to Mars if a certain amount of cryptocurrency is purchased.
The only difference between this scam and the ones that have been seen in the past is the use of a deepfake of Musk. Despite the recent news that the FDA has rejected Neuralink’s application for human trials, these scammers still seem to be banking on the fact that the people who are fooled by the scam won’t be keeping up with the news. After all, the cryptocurrency they are selling has never been officially endorsed by Musk or his Twitter account.
I reached out to Twitter yet again regarding this issue, and this post will be updated if I receive a response.