Gizmodo filed a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request with the FTC to get complaints sent to the federal agency about crypto scams that pretend to be affiliated with Musk. We obtained 247 complaints, all filed between Feb. and Oct. of this year, and they’re filled with stories of people who believed they were watching ads for authentic crypto investments sanctioned by Musk on social media.

The ads sometimes featured the names of Musk’s various companies, like SpaceX, Tesla, and X, while other times they utilized Musk’s association with neo-fascist presidential candidate Donald Trump.

Some people in the complaints believed they were talking directly with Musk, a sadly common story that has popped up in news reports before. But they weren’t talking with Musk, of course. They were communicating with scammers engaging in what’s called pig butchering—the name for a type of fraud popularized in the mid-2010s where scammers extract as much money as possible through flattery and promises of tremendous profits if the victim just “invests” where they’re told.

  • partial_accumen@lemmy.world
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    7 hours ago

    I saw one of these and it took me a second to realize it was a scam. I’m a spaceflight geek and as much as a tool as Musk is, there’s heavy overlap in spaceflight and SpaceX.

    On Youtube there was a purported “live launch update” livestream. I was confused because I knew there were no launches scheduled that day of any kind much less SpaceX. What I saw was Musk on a stage outdoors apparently talking about a new SpaceX crypto product and the voice, which sounded exactly like Musk’s talked about giving away free crypto the only thing you had to do was buy it, then share you wallet info and Musk would double it.

    Besides this smelling very suspect, I realized that there were never close shots when musk was talking, so you couldn’t see the lips match the words being said audibly and I knew it was a scam.

    I can absolutely see how the greedy would get scammed by this.

    • ryantown@lemmy.world
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      7 hours ago

      I saw one of these too on YouTube – it easily popped up early on my home page.

      I’d consider myself a tech savvy person and even then, this took a minute to spot the scam. I can totally see someone falling for it.

    • cygnus@lemmy.ca
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      5 hours ago

      I can absolutely see how the greedy would get scammed by this.

      Really? The only way that could sound more like a scam is if there were a chyron at the bottom spelling out THIS IS A SCAM.

      • partial_accumen@lemmy.world
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        5 hours ago

        It sounds like a scam because I’m distilling all the things that told me it was a scam. I’m glad you can take what I’m tell you is a scam and say “yes thats a scam”. Congrats?

        Musk also does stupid stuff that loses money. He’s (likely illegally) giving away money to buy votes in some states. Musk is also a known cryptobro. The idea that Musk would be giving away crypto to try to build influence or attention isn’t far fetched.

    • finitebanjo@lemmy.world
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      9 hours ago

      They might also just be the target demographic for pig butchering.

      • Middle Class
      • Over 40
      • Conservative Male (lonely)
      • Greedy / Self-serving

      But yeah there is definitely correlation with low cognitive ability.

      • Echo Dot@feddit.uk
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        7 hours ago

        You also have to be the sort of person that genuinely believes you can get something for nothing. You have to have a relatively low IQ for that to be the case.

        You also have to have a relatively low IQ to continue to listen to anything Musk says, so the group are Self-Selecting.

  • cmrn@lemmy.world
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    3 hours ago

    I feel like they don’t even need to be crypto schemes affiliated with Musk for that Venn diagram to work

  • seaQueue@lemmy.world
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    9 hours ago

    If only they had a safe place to put their money that was protected by law and insured against losses.

  • huquad@lemmy.ml
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    1 hour ago

    I’m so glad they’re losing it to these scams instead of to leon.

  • PrincessLeiasCat@sh.itjust.works
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    6 hours ago

    while other times they utilized Musk’s association with neo-fascist presidential candidate Donald Trump.

    I love that they called him what he is. I wish more in media would.

  • S13Ni@lemmy.studio
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    8 hours ago

    Ngl I always hated crypto but this is like best argument for crypto. Wtf I’m even doing at my job, I should be doing something actually important like scramming Elon Musk fans.

      • S13Ni@lemmy.studio
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        7 hours ago

        I don’t really like idea, I can’t see how it could be done in anyway that doesn’t lead to already rich people insider trading it.

      • Echo Dot@feddit.uk
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        7 hours ago

        I like the basic fundamental idea, but the implementation is dreadful.

        I’m all for coming up with some kind of method for validating decentralized information but the system that cryptocurrencies use is highly inefficient.

  • kameecoding@lemmy.world
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    6 hours ago

    Idiots who fall for Elon Musks genius persona and think they are smart also fall for crypto scams? Shocking I tell you, shocking

  • jaschen@lemm.ee
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    6 hours ago

    Can we take NASA contract away from SpaceX? Let’s bring it back in house. Space should not be for profit .

    • UnderpantsWeevil@lemmy.worldOP
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      9 hours ago

      A lot of the people falling for these scams are straight up mentally ill or disabled.

      It’s funny to think of some blowhard yacht guy getting fleeced. Less funny to see an adult with Down’s Syndrome or Schizophrenia or Dementia or a child who got hold of a parent’s credit card and sucked in by some Mr. Beast tier grift get played.

        • thesohoriots@lemmy.world
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          8 hours ago

          The article said nothing about intellectual disability, but it did suggest some older people contextually from their complaints. Here’s an actual citation from one of the complaints that I think sums it up perfectly:

          Now, i’m an intelligent [person], at least I consider myself that to be. I am a huge fan of elon musk and tesla. I only bit into this because it did sound too good to be true.

        • blackbelt352@lemmy.world
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          8 hours ago

          It’s just how basic demographics analysis works. There’s a lot more people who are struggling with mental health problems/mental disabilities that make them more prone to believing scams. And so many games and storefronts use dark patters to make it extremely easy to make undesired purchases or have no safeguards to prevent children from using their parents credit card for purchases.

          All these kinds of people vastly outnumber dumb finance bros on their yachts making stupid money decisions.