Fraudulent Front Runing Youtube Bots Grow 6x in 2022: Report

Scams have been rampant this year despite the market downturn. A new type of sneaky crypto scam with scam bots in the lead on YouTube grew sixfold in 2022.

These types of scams lure users into posting ads on social media claiming to teach you how to earn thousands of dollars in cash in a day using a top bot.

When clicked, these ads refer users to a YouTube video showing how to create and deploy an execution script to generate “profits”.

• It was revealed in a New CertiK report. After analyzing YouTube for videos mentioning the phrase “bot running”, the blockchain security firm observed that out of a sample of 232 videos, 84% were scams.
• Victims are lured to downloaded fake bot software designed to steal funds once they attempt to initiate a foreground transaction.
• In 2021, Certick detected 28 fraudulent videos. This year the numbers have jumped to 168, up 500%
• The report states that several videos can be clearly identified as scams from their title alone, with the common theme being – “free code and huge returns”.
• Typically, questionable videos seem to generate significant community engagement. But upon further investigation, Certik discovered that these were mostly bot-generated responses, lending legitimacy and credibility to the videos.

“There may be genuine comments buried at the bottom of these videos, but you can bet they won’t say the strategy really works. One way to identify comments that are likely from bots is to check the age of the video and the age of the comment. Often there will be a flood of comments right after the video is posted, which is characteristic of inauthentic engagement.”

• While some reports suggest that crypto scams may have retreated alongside bitcoin and cryptocurrency prices, as malicious entities continued to use sophisticated means to steal money.