Massive Shibu Inu YouTube LiveStream Scam Network, $320k stolen
The YouTube live-stream crypto scammers are at it again, not that they have ever stopped, this time creating fake live-stream videos around the latest hottest cryptocurrency, Shibu Inu.
And so far it’s going really well
Here are the links to the videos, some of which have been playing continuously for half a day or longer all without YouTube doing anything to stop it.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dcGqCjx3gvo
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RBJp_SQdr-w
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vuUE7py5Pg0
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aH4o4x-rv74
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QhGy8BhWmvs
https://etherscan.io/address/0xEd528Cd7eAA221698ca7E32c26922F9142A5327D
https://etherscan.io/address/0xc934A0a5e88Df56eb15080f896958aB34730DBA5
The total adds up to around $320k, will likely be much higher.
And the earnings...to say it's "a lot" is an understatement. Even high level Google engineers and hedge fund employees do not earn anywhere close to this much. Keep in mind that this is just part of a single day’s worth of earnings. Now multiply by more videos, more addresses, and 365 days/year.
It's the greatest scam ever in terms of profits , consistency ,and reliability and impunity from legal/criminal consequences. It exceeds online pharma, poker, malware, ransomware, or any other racket in terms of net profit.
I remember a decade ago, around 2007 or so, blackhats would boast on forums about making $10k/day with SEO spam on Google for pharma or credit card keywords. That was considered a "a lot of money." It still is a lot, but it's equal to just an hour's worth of earnings for a single YouTube crypto scam video, of which they are many videos playing 24-7, day after day, to no end. It just blows that away. Even "legit" poker and drug sites do not earn that much profit in a day.
In the ‘90s, informercial and pay-per-line phone scams were common. This too blows that away and no risk.
Even mafia guys do not compare. I remember watching a YouTube video of a former mobster who made millions in the early 1980s in the "gas business" (a scheme involving defrauding the U.S. government of gas credits). His name is Michael Franzese, and was a caporegime of the Colombo crime family, which is a high-ranking position. He was arrested in 1985 and as part of a plea forfeited all his profits, and after being ratted on by his co-partner. Anyway, these YouTube scammers make way more money than he did, without any of the risk.
Another individual is Larry Lawton, who made $3-5 million in net profit as "America's biggest jewel thief", robbing a string of jewellery stores in the early 90s in Florida, and had connections with the Gambino crime family, where he fenced his goods. He stole $20-30 million but kept just a fraction of it after accounting for middlemen and other expenses. Anyway, $3 million probably equal to a month's worth of risk-free YouTube crypto scam profits.
How about drug dealers? “Freeway” Rick Ross in the ‘80s purportedly made “2 billion dollars” as drug trafficker , operating in Los Angles, which in today’s dollars amounted to $900 million in profits. These figures are likely exaggerated, as Mr. Ross himself attests. Anyway, he was arrested multiple times and lost everything. According to Freakonomics author Steven Levitt, the typical income of a drug dealer is worse than working at fast food. A ‘top’ dealer serving high networth clients can make around $800,000/year, which is a lot but still way less than YouTube crpyto scams and considerably more risk (the whole war on drugs, and all).
The YouTube scam videos work especially well for crime because rather than stealing from the victim, the victim willingly gives their money to the scammer under a false pretense. So this means the victim bears some responsibility. Second, it scales much better. Crypto is a multi-trillion-dollar industry now. This exceeds the size of all the casinos in Las Vegas and Atlantic City. Third, extremely consistent. It’s one thing to earn a big score, but another to score every day for weeks and months on end.
There is no shortage of potential victims as crypto becomes mainstream and ingrained in culture, alongside sports and movies. Elon Musk's Twitter account has 60 million followers, in large part due to crypto hype. You can easily see how a credulous audience in the millions who also want to get rich quick, and also given the refusal/inability of YouTube/Google to do anything, guarantees such such scams will persist and thrive for the foreseeable future.