Litecoin (LTC) founder Charlie Lee got creative on Sunday night (PT) with regards to educating the broader community of the scamming pandemic that has plagued Twitter for some time, particularly since the December buying frenzy saw an influx of new, gullible investors eager to make a quick crypto profit.
In this tweet, Lee (who goes by the Twitter handle @SatoshiLite) shared with his followers that “for a limited time only,” he’d be giving away 100 LTC (i.e., the cryptocurrency underpinning the Litecoin blockchain).
Adding an extra amount of pressure upon those vulnerable to being swindled, the Litecoin creator advised his followers to “hurry up before I run out of coins!”
For those interested, Lee provided an external link in his tweet, which presumably would outline the steps required to send him the 0.01 LTC he demanded upfront, so as to know where to send back 1 LTC in exchange.
For a limited time only, I am giving away 100 LTC. To get 1 LTC, first send me 0.01 LTC. Hurry up before I run out of coins! See here: https://t.co/uHu3UZ6OQR
— Charlie Lee [LTC] (@SatoshiLite) May 21, 2018
What those gullible enough to click through would soon realise, however, was that they’d been conned – just not in the way it would normally play out.
Indeed, appearing on the click-through link was the below message composed by Lee:
Whilst a laugh for most, the amount of creativity and inventiveness behind Lee’s Sunday tweet speaks to the lack of progress that the popular social media platform has made with regards to ousting crypto-related scammers.
Time and time again, influential members of the cryptosphere have been forced to think up ways to nullify a problem that ultimately doesn’t lie with them.
Beyond Lee’s latest education-driven effort, we have seen several popular Twitter profiles opt to alter their username (e.g. Ethereum creator Vitalik Buterin using the name ‘Vitalik “Not giving away ETH” Buterin’ as well as including this fact in his bio).
Just yesterday, Crypto Trader host Ran Neu-Ner took the issue straight to Twitter CEO; calling upon crypto enthusiasts to retweet their frustrations with the level of scammer activity. At the time of writing, Neu-Ner has prompted 1,673 retweets, some of which have come via the likes of Bill Barhydt (CEO & Founder, Abra) and Vinny Lingham (CEO, Civic).
Hey @jack . It’s has become impossible to use Crypto twitter. Every tweet gets hit by 50 bots giving away free ETH. One of the scams claiming to be me netted 80 Eth from people hoping to win.
Please sort this out…
RETWEET THIS SO WE CAN GET @jack TO SEE IT AND RESOLVE.
— Ran NeuNer (
@cryptomanran) May 20, 2018
Alternatively, we have seen official cryptoasset Twitter accounts have to devise their own methods to help wane off scammer activity on behalf of the slow-to-respond social media company.
For instance, the official profile of Ripple (XRP) has pinned this tweet to their account page; a selfless decision to make, for this valuable space would otherwise be going to a tweet highlighting a significant achievement of theirs, the exposure of which would heighten the chance of Ripple attracting business inquiries from impressed parties.
We’ve noticed an increase in fraudulent accounts claiming to be @Ripple or members of the Ripple Team offering giveaways.
Be on alert – they are not official accounts.
— Ripple (@Ripple) February 21, 2018
Image From Shutterstock
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