Cryptocurrency Giveaway Scam with YouTube Live Stream

This paper investigates the cryptocurrency giveaway scam with the YouTube live stream. In this scam scheme, the scammer streams a recorded video of a famous person in a YouTube live stream, and annotates the video with a cryptocurrency giveaway announcement. In the announcement, the victims are encouraged to visit the scammer’s webpage for a cryptocurrency giveaway. The webpage is designed intelligently to deceive victims. The scam claims that whatever donation the victim sends to a cryptocurrency wallet address, the giveaway scheme will double the donated amount and immediately send it back to the victim. By analyzing the scammers’ wallet addresses, it can be seen that scammers could steal a significant amount of money in a short time. After analyzing the scammers’ techniques, this paper discusses the countermeasures that can be applied to mitigate such a fraudulent activity in the future.