In the largely unregulated world of bitcoin and cryptocurrency, fraudsters are getting rich by deliberately spreading false information to affect the price of their holdings using social media, scam news sites, and private chat apps.
On Saturday, Jan. 14, a Twitter account purporting to be that of John McAfee, the outlandish founder of cybersecurity firm McAfee, shared a bit of investment advice. “Coin of the day,” the account tweeted, promoting GVT, a new digital coin that had started trading in the fall of 2017.
Despite his infamy (he founded one of the most successful antivirus software companies ever, fled from Belize police in 2012 after being wanted for questioning in the death of his neighbor, and ran for president in 2016), McAfee is still viewed by some as a cryptocurrency sage; he was touting bitcoin as the currency of the future long before its recent gains. And — for some — McAfee shilling for GVT was good reason to buy it, a premonition of future buying frenzies and a soaring valuation.
So they bought. And they bought without noticing the additional "L" in the Twitter username or the missing verification check that distinguished the bogus McAfee account from the real one, @OfficialMcAfee. When the tweet was first broadcast at around 3 p.m. ET, GVT was bought and sold on the market at $30. By 3:04, it was at $45, and trading volume had doubled.
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https://www.buzzfeed.com/ryanmac/heres-how-scammers-are-using-fake-news-to-screw-with-bitcoin?utm_term=.ihGEN4G2V#.saQ7AVY51