YouTube has been contacted for comment.
The hack adds to a torrid week for the media company, which made 150 staff redundant, including three of its most senior executives as it battles with an ailing advertising market, and an expected exit of commercial revenue from Meta.
Cryptocurrency scams have surged in recent years, with billionaire businessman Andrew “Twiggy” Forrest currently embroiled in legal action with tech giant Facebook over fraudulent crypto ads featuring his likeness.
On Wednesday, rock band Metallica’s X accounts were hacked by cryptocurrency scammers who promoted a crypto token, “METAL”, before the band’s management reclaimed the accounts and deleted the posts.
And in 2020, Musk and other high-profile X accounts including those belonging to US President Joe Biden and Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates were hacked to promote bitcoin.
Australia’s corporate watchdog has taken down more than 2500 investment scam and phishing websites since July last year, with many related to scam crypto investments.
More to come
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