My younger brother recently lost money in a deceptive cryptocurrency giveaway scam he encountered on social media. He was scrolling through Twitter when he saw a tweet from an account that appeared identical to Tesla CEO Elon Musk’s official profile. The tweet promised an exclusive Bitcoin giveaway, claiming Musk was distributing Bitcoin to fans and investors as part of Tesla’s celebration.

The instructions were simple: participants were to send Bitcoin to a specific wallet address, and Musk would send back double the amount as a generous gift. The tweet had thousands of likes and shares, with many comments thanking Musk and claiming they received their doubled Bitcoin quickly. Excited by this apparent generosity, my brother hurriedly sent about $800 worth of Bitcoin to the provided address.

After waiting a few hours and receiving nothing, he revisited the tweet to find it deleted and the account suspended. He quickly realized he had fallen victim to an impersonation scam. The scammers had used fake engagement, bots, and copied profiles to deceive innocent users like him.

When he researched further, he found that similar fake giveaways were widespread across Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram, duping many into losing significant amounts. This incident deeply upset my brother, both financially and emotionally, and taught us the necessity of verifying giveaways directly through official sources. Real giveaways from reputable individuals or organizations never require participants to send money or crypto first. Always stay cautious and never send cryptocurrency based solely on social media promises.