Youtube Channel SaveAFox, previously a channel about like, a fox sanctuary that showed cute footage of the foxes to get more donors, got hacked today.
It is now full of videos claiming to be from SpaceX and Elon Musk’s ugly mug.
Thing is
It’s not the first channel I’ve seen being hacked, nor is it the first to get that exact type of content spammed into it. Linus Tech Tips got hacked some time back (honestly I don’t remember how long ago, but I was already on Lemmy, so it was within the past year and change) and it had that exact type of stuff before LMG took it back.
And there was another random channel that I saw suffer the same fate some months before LTT.
My question is – Why Elon Musk? Why SpaceX/Tesla? Is Musk himself paying people to build zombie farms for him? I wouldn’t put it past him but at the same time he has the funds to not need that kind of tactic – He could astroturf by more “legit-looking” means.
Is it just because people who like Musk are more likely to fall for scams?
Idk, found myself wondering that.
I don’t have a proper answer but I know exactly what you’re talking about. I’ve seen it happen with channels like GameXplain, A+ Start, and LTT as you said.
It seems like it comes from long-term social engineering where the hackers pretend to be a potential sponsor and eventually send a .zip with a dodgy screen saver file that rips the session cookies from the PC’s browser.
Why they choose Musk? I assume, like you said, people who like him are more likely to fall for scams. I’ve never watched too much of the stream, but I wouldn’t be surprised if there’s a crypto scam in there.