One of the scam crypto ads purchased with a verified account seen on Twitter on Wednesday morning.
Most of the scammers have abandoned Twitter, according to CEO Elon Musk, who sat down for an interview with the BBC on Tuesday night. But if you’re a Twitter user with an interest in tech, you might be seeing some incredibly scammy ads right now. Some of the ads even use Musk’s face to sell SpaceX-themed crypto, falsely claiming the billionaire has endorsed the digital product.
When the BBC asked Musk if he was concerned about the spread of misinformation on the platform—an interview that was livestreamed on Twitter’s Spaces audio feature late Tuesday—the CEO insisted it wasn’t a problem.
“I actually think there's less [misinformation] these days because we've eliminated so many of the bots which were pushing scams and spam,” Musk said.
The BBC also asked Musk if big advertisers had returned to the platform after their much publicized departure when he bought the company in October 2022, and the CEO said, “not all, but most.”
“You can see it for yourself on Twitter,” Musk told the BBC.
But that certainly hasn’t been my experience over the past few months. As a regular Twitter user, I’ve been seeing lots of crypto scams that use Musk’s image—a problem that’s persisted.
“Breaking news for all crypto investors around the world! The visionary CEO of Tesla and SpaceX, Elon Musk, has just announced the launch of the official SpaceX Token, and the Pre-Sale is now open for a limited time only,” one of the scam websites that’s advertising on Twitter claims.
Musk has publicly touted his investments in crypto like Bitcoin and Dogecoin, but the billionaire Twitter CEO has never started his own cryptocurrency. And the ad above, which is currently making money for Twitter, is transparently a scam.
The landing page for the Twitter ad directs users to a much more polished website with SpaceX branding where they can purchase the scam coins. And it even promises prizes for people who buy in.
“Investors who acquire 3,000 SpaceX Tokens will be eligible to spin a Lucky Wheel that could result in winning a variety of prizes, including a trip to Mars in 2025, a flame thrower from The Boring Company, a Neuralink brain chip that interfaces with OpenAI, or token bonuses,” the scam website claims.
Screenshot showing one of the crypto scam websites currently being promoted on Twitter.
Again, Musk has never launched his own token and whoever’s really behind this ad doesn’t have the ability to give people things like a Neuralink brain chip or a trip to Mars. Even Musk isn’t promising anyone a trip to Mars yet, despite tremendous accomplishments being made with SpaceX rockets.
But that doesn’t stop the scam ads from insisting SpaceX is really behind this new crypto.
“SpaceX Token is a groundbreaking cryptocurrency project built by Elon Musk's space exploration company, SpaceX,” the scam website reads.
“Featuring its own blockchain, SpaceX Chain offers a range of cutting-edge features that surpass other blockchains. This community-based project offers the opportunity for investors to participate in the funding of space exploration and to have a say in decision-making processes,” the website continues.
Aside from photos of Musk, the ads also frequently use the logos of reputable crypto news outlets, as you can see in the screenshot I’ve highlighted below. That logo is for Coin Telegraph, a real crypto news site, though these scammers have no known association with the outlet.
Scam crypto ad that's currently being shown on Twitter, which uses a Coin Telegraph logo.
The ads are also sometimes run on accounts that have purchased Twitter Blue, the subscription service that costs $8 per month for individuals. Twitter doesn’t actually verify anyone’s identity when they pay for Twitter Blue, a decision that has caused institutional accounts to wonder why they’d pay for a checkmark without any real functionality.
Musk tweeted last night that “legacy” blue checkmarks would vanish by April 20, though it’s not clear whether that will actually happen. The number 4/20 is a reference to marijuana and Musk frequently makes jokes about it.
And I’m not the only one seeing these scam ads. People often tweet at Musk asking if the SpaceX coin ads they’re seeing are real. But Musk hasn’t responded to any of the questions, as far as I can tell.
A Twitter user asks Elon Musk if the SpaceX token is real.
Believe it or not, people actually fall for these crypto scams. I even obtained the documents from the FTC to prove it back in January.
How much of Twitter’s ads are currently scams? That’s difficult to estimate at this point, but I’ve been seeing the ads regularly since I first wrote about the problem back in February and March. Each time, I reached out to Twitter to ask about what the social media platform might be doing to combat these scammers, but have not gotten a real response.
Twitter responded to emailed questions on Wednesday with a poop emoji, an automated response set up by Musk that goes out to all reporters. I’ll update this article in the unlikely event Musk addresses this issue in any way.
Musk is scheduled to be interviewed at the Possible Conference in Miami, Florida on April 18. But numerous major advertisers have expressed a concern about even appearing at the conference with Musk, according to leaked emails obtained by Semafor. And it’s really no mystery why big brands might be concerned.
Lately, Musk has been making juvenile jokes at Twitter, even painting over the “W” on the sign at the company’s San Francisco headquarters, apparently a joke about breasts. And overnight, Musk made several jokes about the BBC being a reference to pornography—a joke I’ll let you look up on Urban Dictionary if you don’t know what it means.
“I said BBC could come Twitter, then, to my surprise, a reporter shows up,” Musk tweeted.
“Penetrating deep & hard with @BBC,” Musk said in another porn joke.
Musk, who’s 51 years old, is free to make all the jokes he wants on a platform he owns. But if the billionaire was seriously concerned about attracting advertisers to the social media site, you’d think he’d want to make it an inviting place for all kinds of people. Under Twitter’s current management, Twitter has given blue checkmarks to at least two open neo-Nazis with huge followings, including one account with a racial slur.
The current era of Twitter is one that seems to be driven by Musk making jokes. And he’s free to do that all he wants. But big brands are also free to say they don’t want to be associated with Twitter if it’s just going to be an adult man’s playhouse filled with crypto scams.
