Twitch Scams: Just Chatting Streams Scamming Viewers for Thousands
Twitch is facing a serious problem with unchecked Just Chatting streams that are scamming viewers out of thousands of dollars.
A recent post on Reddit highlighted one specific channel named “Elonmusk859” that gained popularity in the Just Chatting section of Twitch. At one point, the channel had over 40,000 viewers, although a significant portion of them were likely bots, according to a user on Reddit.
This channel is running a bitcoin scam, which is not a new tactic. The scammer promises to give free cryptocurrency to those who donate a certain amount to a designated address. The catch is that if you donate 0.1 BTC (roughly $1,381), you would supposedly receive 0.2 BTC in return. However, the scammer keeps the bitcoin, resulting in a significant loss for the viewer.
To make the scam more convincing, the scammer is using the persona of tech billionaire Elon Musk. Surprisingly, many people have fallen for it. The scammers have already made almost $6,000 from one bitcoin address and nearly $4,000 from another.
The scammers claim to be organizing a massive bitcoin giveaway of 5000 BTC, which is valued at approximately $68,953,500.
According to the scammers, “Elon Musk with SpaceX & NASA believe that blockchain and bitcoin will make the world more fair. To speed up the process of cryptocurrency mass adoption, We decided to run 5000 BTC giveaway.”
It’s clear that this is a typical bitcoin scam, evident from the poor grammar used in the scammers’ message. Unfortunately, Twitch is unable to remove these channels quickly enough to protect viewers from potential scams.
Another copycat channel, which was live at the time of writing, had an average viewership of 41,770, according to TwitchTracker. Despite the likelihood of many bot viewers, there is still a chance that real viewers might assume it’s a legitimate giveaway.
Although these channels are eventually taken down, the process is not fast enough to prevent potential scams.