Technology

There's a simple explanation for this. Elon Musk fans are fucking idiots.

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.

I mean it makes sense to target these people. If you're stupid enough to believe the shit Musk or Trump spout, you're also stupid enough to not see these very obvious scams.

Maybe a hot take, but those currently into crypto and Musk aren't that bright.

Sure, the scams like pig butchering look dumb from the outside, but never think shit like this can't happen to you. There's TONs of ways scammers can trick you, but usually they'll seek out vulnerable people. Sure the gullible are vulnerable, but just because you're not vulnerable right now, doesn't mean you won't be at some point in the future. Desperation can make scholars into fools.

When these scams first started featuring Musk, it was clear that he was a common lead because of his wealth. Pretty much just "Get rich quick, and be rich like [insert rich guy here]". I've seen scams in the past with Buffet, Gates, or Bezos on it before, because the kind of people who fall for a get-rich-quick scam are the kinds of people who idolize wealth.

But now it seems that Musk fans are a uniquely exploitable group. They are easily fooled by wild claims, and quickly subscribe to magical thinking. At this point, they're just low-hanging fruit.

This is pretty sad.

I have a number of elderly relatives. The one thing I keep telling them is if they ever get approached, to contact their kids, or check with another family member before responding. So far, there haven't been any problems.

But I heard an in-law's parents in a different state lost a big chunk of money to one of these scams and may now lose their home.

Tech bros are tech broing?!

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

Schadenfreude popcorn 🍿 time.

Skill issue lmao

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

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.

Who would think that Musk fans are gullible people susceptible to scams?

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

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

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

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.

The registered republican voter records are available for purchase - that list is such a gold mine of warm, qualified leads of the dumbest people. Cross reference above a certain threshold for affluent zip codes and split by age and you're now holding the keys to hate-filled grandma's pension.

Some people in the complaints believed they were talking directly with Musk, a sadly common story that has popped up in news reports before.

I remember when I thought I was talking directly to a celebrity online… when I was 13. It didn’t take long to realize how stupid that idea was. To be a grown adult and still think there’s a chance a celebrity is sending messages to random people is mind-boggling.

I cringe at the memories now, but at least I can take comfort in having learned about catfishing long before I had money to lose from it.

"A fool and their money will soon be parted."

There are a lot of scams out there pretending to be Musk. If you want to watch a SpaceX launch, there's probably at least 1 scam youtube stream out there that looks legit with thousands of viewers and then turns into a scam before the launch.

After all of the send me crypto and i'll send double back.... I find it hilarious that he's now telling people to do things and he'll pay them... and it'll be even funnier when they realize they don't get it and were scammed into giving him their info for no money.

This has been news in Canada for about a year, story after story about people getting sucked in and losing tens to hundreds of thousands of dollars. When it's not Musk it's Justin Trudeau, same M.O.

You'd think if these people read the news outlets they share their stories with that they would have seen one of the articles already because they're so common. But then again people still take Sunwing package vacations then complain to the news when it's subpar so idk.

Edit to add I blame big tech more than the scam victims, they have no protections in place and are profiting off the scammers immorally as well. They should have to manually review these things or at least be responsive to user reports and they're doing neither. I actually know someone who got banned from Meta products for reporting too many scam ads.