Vitalik Buterin, the young entrepreneur and co-founder of Ethereum recently changed his name on twitter account from “Vitalik Buterin” to “Vitalik ‘No I’m not giving away ETH’ Buterin” as he was infuriated by twitter scams.

On March 4th, Buterin’s anger at scammers enraged him to change his name and make it clear that he is not involved with any scams happening under his fake name such as the “Donate Ether and get 10x Back” scheme. Moreover, he warned his followers – not to get trapped in such scams.

Vitalik Buterin Twitter AccountA screenshot of Vitalik Buterin's Official Twitter Account

Scammers are targeting renowned crypto influencers on Twitter to rip-off their followers by posting fake scams on their tweets. The scammers are using a smart technique to deceive the naïve crypto users who typically want to get rich overnight.

The scammer created a bot that immediately posts a  reply to influencer’s latest tweet saying “Donate me 1-3 ethers and I’ll giveaway 10-30 ethers back.” To make this scam more realistic, the fraudulent accounts use the same profile picture and name of the influencer.

Additionally, to make the users convince the giveaway is real and people are getting money, the bot posts a fake picture of a successful transaction and with a message along the lines of  “Wow this is great!”.

The Ether Twitter Scam at Fever Pitch

The widespread “10x” twitter scam creators have stolen millions of dollars in Ethereum. It’s not that Buterin is the only guy who is suffering,  John McAfee, Tesla and Space X founder Elon Musk, Binance CEO CZ – naming a few – are impersonated with the latest Twitter scam. Essentially anyone with a large following in the crypto space.

Here are some examples of a typical scam:

If someone clicks on that link, it will land the user on a fake page showing a list successful “10x” transactions. As seen on Etherscan.io, a fake profile has collected more than 40 Ethereum, worth $35,000 in just a few hours.

Buterin urged the followers not to be one of those greedy victims. He tweeted:

“No, I'm not giving away ETH, Or BTC. Or BCH. Or DOGE. Or Wild Beast Block. Yall are getting nothing.”

Vitalik Buterin

However, there’s no hope to stop the scammers using this method again, creating fake Twitter IDs, which resembles very much like the official ID. Hence, it is therefore essential to be on your guard until Twitter come up with a better solution.

Finally, don’t forget to check the username of a person offering a giveaway, not just blue tick near the name. Surprisingly, hackers pawned few verified accounts to spread the scam.