Doge giveaway scam removal

There is a new Doge giveaway scam going around, claiming that Elon Musk is hosting a Doge cryptocurrency giveaway that promises users to double the amount they send themselves. However, users who send their Doge cryptocurrency would get nothing in return, as this is merely a scam.

 

The Doge scam that’s displayed on questionable websites

Cryptocurrency scams are nothing new, and this time scammers are using the Doge cryptocurrency to make a profit. The way this particular scam works, is you may get redirected to a website like musk-in.com/doge and see a notification about a Doge giveaway that claims if you send between 5,000 and 10,000,000 Doge, you will get double in return. The scam shows the Tesla logo and mentions Elon Musk as the organizer of the giveaway, in an attempt to appear more legitimate.

“Elon Musk believes that blockchain and Doge will make the world more fair. To speed up the process of cryptocurrency mass adoption, We decided to run 100 000 000 DOGE giveaway,” one of the scam messages says. Users are invited to send Doge cryptocurrency to the shown address, and they would supposedly receive double in return. However, they would receive nothing, as this merely a scam, a very common one at that, thought they’re usually Bitcoin giveaway scams.

To promote these scams and make them appear more legitimate, scammers often use famous people and brand names. In particular, Elon Musk, Tesla and even SpaceX are often mentioned in these scams. Scammers also create fake Elon Musk Twitter accounts and leave responses promoting the scams below legitimate Elon Musk tweets, which often confuses people and they end up falling for the scam.

It’s not surprising that cryptocurrency giveaway scams are so common as cryptocurrency is currently a very popular topic and many are investing in it. Unfortunately, people, particularly new investors, are not very careful. These “send cryptocurrency, get double in return” giveaways are never legitimate, and no ones going to give away millions of dollars just because.

It’s important to determine why you are being redirected to sites like musk-in.com/doge that promote cryptocurrency scams. If you just clicked on a link in one of those fake Twitter posts, you’re fine. However, if you’re randomly redirected to them, you could have adware installed. In which case, you would need to get rid of the adware to remove Doge giveaway scam redirects permanently.

Adware can redirect to Doge giveaway scams

If you get redirected to sites like musk-in.com/doge that displays giveaway scams, you may have adware installed, you were redirected by a high-risk site you were visiting, or you clicked on one of those fake Elon Musk tweets that promote these scams.

If you have adware installed, you will need to get rid of it to stop being redirected. Adware can install via software bundling, meaning it can come attached to free software as an extra offer. The offers are permitted to install alongside the freeware automatically, unless you manually prevent their installation. To do that, you need to pay attention when installing free software. Always use Advanced or Custom settings instead of Default settings, as those will make all extra offers visible. You will also be able to deselect all of them. Only after you have unchecked the boxes of those offers should you continue with the freeware installation.

If you are randomly redirected when visiting high-risk websites, it’s probably the site that’s at fault. As long as you have adblocker enabled, the redirects shouldn’t happen, or least be less noticeable.

These cryptocurrency giveaway scams are also promoted in fake Twitter posts. If you clicked on one of the links in those tweets, you would end up on one of the sites that promote the fake Doge giveaway scams. It’s usually fake celebrity Twitter accounts that promote these fake giveaways, such as fake Elon Musk accounts.

Doge giveaway scam removal

If you get redirect to these scams, it’s important to determine why you’re getting redirected in the first place, if it was random or if you have adware on your computer. If you have adware, you will be constantly redirected. So to remove Doge giveaway scam redirects permanently, you would need to get rid of the adware. Doing that would be easiest using anti-virus software because the program would take care of everything. Manual adware removal may be more difficult because you’d have to locate the adware yourself.

Lastly, it should be mentioned that if you already transferred your cryptocurrency to the address, there nothing you can do to get it back.