Earlier this morning, a mysterious video titled “One World Cryptocurrency” was posted on many popular crypto/finance YouTube channels – without permission from the owners. The video looks like a free scam.
“One World Cryptocurrency”
The minute-long video features promotion of a supposedly new BSC token called “One World Cryptocurrency” (Ticker: OWCY). It features a “contact address”, and a listed pre-sale price of “0.0001’ (no unit of account was given).
It then lists a number of cryptos through which “investors” can allegedly buy the token, including USDT, USDC, BNB, and ETH. He claims that OWYC will be listed on both CoinMarketCap and CoinGecko – which have not yet done so.
BSC and Ethereum addresses were provided for purchasers to buy the new coin. According to BscScan and EtherScan, neither address has pulled in more than a few hundred dollars thus far.
Gift scams are commonplace in the crypto space, thanks to the potential for anonymity and irreversibility that blockchain transactions provide. These same properties have also made them popular tools for ransomware attacks. Others have also been far more lucrative, with a fake Michael Saylor scam bringing in $1.1 million last week.
YouTubers Get Hacked
Numerous Twitter users reported the video having randomly appeared in their YouTube feeds from unexpected posters. One of these was Coin Bureau, a crypto-focused YouTuber with nearly 2 million subscribers.
“So our YouTube channel just got hacked,” he told his followers in a Tweeter. “Unless someone physically has a security key, I have no idea how they got to it…”
The creator claimed that all of his accounts were secured with strong passwords and security keys, and called upon YouTube to address the issue.
Arun Maini (aka Mrwhosetheboss) – a tech YouTuber with over 9 million subscribers – was also impacted. “I think someone broke into my YouTube account and posted something,” he said this morning. A screen recording shows it was the OWCY video. He also called on YouTube to fix the issue, noting that he hadn’t even received a notification that a video had been posted on his channel.
Dozens of other YouTubers were affected, including Real Vision, Ivan on Tech, and Bitboy Crypto. Most have since removed the video from their channels.
