Hackers attacked some popular encrypted YouTube accounts at some point in the afternoon on January 23. The accounts posted unauthorized videos with text instructing viewers to send money to the hackers' wallets.
Those that appear to have been targeted include: "BitBoy Crypto," "Altcoin Buzz," "Box Mining," "Floyd Mayweather," "Ivan on Tech," and "The Moon," among others.
Breaking news: Dozens of crypto YouTube accounts have been hijacked by hackers promoting a fake cryptocurrency giveaway scam. Hacked accounts include: @IvanOnTech@boxmining@aantonop@themooncarl@Bitboy_Crypto@mmcrypto@Altcoinbuzzio@FloydMayweather@crypto_banter@CoinMarketCap
— Mr. Whale (@CryptoWhale) January 23, 2022
At the time of writing, the Binance Smart Chain wallet address listed in the scam video had a total of only 9 BNB transactions with a total value of about $850.
Michael Gu told Cointelegraph that his YouTube channel Boxmining posted a video without his permission. He said: "Fortunately, we found it within two minutes of the video being live and managed to remove it. At that time, there had been comments and comments from my community."
He added that he had conducted an internal sweep and found no viruses or vulnerabilities that could have given hackers access to his accounts. "It appears that YouTube may be liable," he said.
Lots of crypto YouTubers (including me) got hacked today - all posting a scam video around the same time - @IvanOnTech@aantonop@Bitboy_Crypto@Altcoinbuzzio@FloydMayweather@crypto_banter@CoinMarketCap
I have two factor authentication enabled.
— Boxmining (@boxmining) January 23, 2022
User "9Oh8m8" posted on Reddit that the hackers appeared to be gaining access to the accounts through a SIM swap scam so they could bypass two-factor authentication (2FA). They added:
“They all post with the title “ONE WORLD CRYPTOCURRENCY”. They both have an address in the video and description to send your USDT/USDC/BNB/ETH to receive a new cryptocurrency called OWCY.”
However, Gu does not believe the hack was the result of a SIM swap, telling Cointelegraph that he was not logged into his personal Google account. "If it had been a SIM swap, I wouldn't have been able to use my phone etc, but that didn't happen," he said.
“What we noticed was that the brand account (which is not logged in. The YouTube brand account is linked to the personal account) had a login from the Philippines. It is very likely that it was a hacker attack or a rogue employee on the YouTube side. That’s why they were able to attack at the same time to so many people."
Shash Gupta, founder and CEO of the Altcoin Buzz YouTube channel, added that they discovered some issues around 1am Singapore time on Sunday when an unauthorized video was posted to their channel.
"It is unclear what happened. I am communicating with Youtube to understand this and avoid further intrusions."
Another crypto YouTuber, Richard Heart, tweeted at 9:30 p.m. UTC that his channel was banned during the live stream, suggesting that YouTube may have been aware of the incident.
Cointelegraph reached out to YouTube and a number of other crypto content creators affected by the hack, but had not received any additional information at the time of writing.
Cointelegraph Chinese is a blockchain news information platform, and the information provided only represents the author's personal opinion, has nothing to do with the position of the Cointelegraph Chinese platform, and does not constitute any investment and financial advice. Readers are requested to establish correct currency concepts and investment concepts, and earnestly raise risk awareness.
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