PSA: There's A Crypto Scam on Youtube Misappropriating Cardano Content

PSA: There’s A Crypto Scam on Youtube Misappropriating Cardano Content

Nick Chong

Last Updated: July 14, 2020 3:00 am

3 mins read

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Cardano (ADA) has been one of the most popular cryptocurrencies over the past few months.

This is for good reason: according to market data, the price of the altcoin has risen by 200% since the start of 2020. This has allowed Cardano to outpace Bitcoin, Ethereum, and a swath of other top cryptocurrencies.

The project has also been subject to positive fundamental developments. By the end of July, the blockchain will be entering what is known as the “Shelley” era, which will be marked by the rolling out of ADA staking. The upgrade to Shelley is expected to result in an uptick in adoption and decentralization.

Unfortunately, Cardano’s recent outperformance and fundamental developments have spurred scammers to misappropriate content related to the project.

Watch Out for a Scam Using Cardano Content On Youtube

According to a popular post published to the r/Cryptocurrency subreddit on July 13th, there is an ongoing scam using Cardano content on Youtube.

The live stream is titled “LIVE Cardano Summit 2020 | Charles Hoskinson Opening Keynote: Shelley Edition.”

The scammers operating the livestream are attempting to use already-aired content of the blockchain’s founder, Charles Hoskinson, to steal cryptocurrency from viewers.

The exact scam is to get users to end “5,000 ADA to 1,000,000 ADA” to a given address, which will purportedly return double what was sent. This, of course, is too good to be true. If users send any of their cryptocurrency to the address, they won’t get any back.

Screenshot of a crypto scam on Youtube using content from Charles Hoskinson and Cardano branding

Some reports say there may be multiple of these live streams, each with a slightly different layout and/or scammer group behind it.

Charles Hoskinson Warns of Scams

Hoskinson has been responding to these scams and others.

Commenting on another scam that used his face and his project, the cryptocurrency entrepreneur commented last week:

“You work five years on something, you put your heart and soul into it, you just have a giant event with 10,000 people attend, and you see floating around Telegram, Twitter, many channels, some video, some scammers in China using my face, our company’s logo, the Cardano Foundation’s logo who have absolutely no affiliation with us.”

He added that it’s unfortunate because there is no viable way the Cardano Foundation or himself can sue the scammers:

“I have no recourse for that. I can’t sue them, I have no idea where they’re at, what’s going on. This happens all the time. Same with Vitalik for Ethereum. Same for Brad and XRP.”

Unfortunately for investors and for projects, these scams will likely to continue as the industry continues to grow and exits the ongoing bear market.