Cybercriminals have been exploiting high-profile YouTube accounts to promote cryptocurrency scams, with a particular focus on schemes related to Elon Musk and Tesla, according to research by cybersecurity firm Bitdefender.
These scams involve suspicious live streams rebroadcasting legitimate content, while incorporating malicious QR codes or links that lead viewers to cryptocurrency scam websites. The researchers have termed this technique “stream-jacking.” Phishing kits were used to automate these attacks, although the identity of the operator behind the kit remains unknown.
Many of the compromised YouTube channels had their original content made private or deleted, and the channel descriptions were altered to resemble the official Tesla channel. To gain control of these channels, hackers sent phishing emails to their owners, which often offered collaboration opportunities, sponsorships, or fake copyright notices from YouTube.
These emails contained malicious attachments that installed Redline Infostealer malware, which collected sensitive data from victims’ computers, including session tokens and cookies, even if two-factor authentication was enabled.
In most cases, YouTube removed the channels when detecting suspicious activity, causing genuine channel owners to potentially lose all their content, subscribers, and monetization. Several of these compromised channels had millions of subscribers and billions of total views.
The comment sections of these live streams were either disabled or restricted to subscribers of 10 or 15 years, making it challenging for users to alert others to the scams. The primary cryptocurrency scam involved the fraudsters urging individuals to send cryptocurrency, promising to double the amount sent.
Additionally, the researchers found deepfake videos featuring Elon Musk advocating for cryptocurrencies. These deepfakes were so convincing that they could deceive the average viewer.
Researchers also identified a Telegram channel in Russian selling the phishing kit, which had a limited number of subscribers as of July. In total, Bitdefender identified 1,300 videos promoting cryptocurrency scams on malicious websites that likely originated from the same phishing kit. All the promoted scam websites were protected by Cloudflare, making them more challenging to analyze automatically.
Bitdefender emphasized that YouTube channels with a substantial subscriber count are highly attractive to cybercriminals, who can monetize them by demanding ransom from legitimate owners or distributing scams and malware to the channel’s audience.
