If you’re going to run a crypto scam, it makes sense to invoke Elon Musk’s name. He is the wealthiest man in the world, after all, recently surpassing a net worth of $500 billion according to Forbes. But it’s still shocking to read the stories of those who’ve been scammed by people posing as the Tesla CEO.
Gizmodo filed a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request with the FTC for complaints from people who say they were tricked by scammers posing as Musk or who used online ads with the billionaire’s likeness. Gizmodo has filed such FOIA requests with the FTC before, and it’s instructive to learn what new tricks and tools scammers are using to lure their victims.
Some scammers appear to convince victims they’re actually Elon Musk, even bringing in supporting characters like Elon’s mother, Maye Musk, to vouch for a given “investment.” Other times, scammers will use AI-generated photos or videos to make it appear Elon is promoting a given cryptocurrency or online platform where someone can supposedly get rich.
Some of the stories are heartbreaking, like the woman in Florida who filed a complaint with the FTC because her elderly husband has cancer and isn’t thinking clearly as he engages with a person he’s convinced is the real Elon. She writes that her husband, who’s in his 70s, is “heavily medicated and does not believe he is being scammed.” He lost at least $10,000.
Scammers frequently set up YouTube livestreams during major SpaceX or Tesla events, making them appear as official as possible, but imploring people to send cryptocurrency that will be “matched” by Musk or his companies. A Florida man in his 60s wrote to the FTC about getting scammed out of $225,000 that way, sending crypto to Coinbase earlier this year.
The scams are all from the past year, meaning that there are sometimes cameos by President Donald Trump. Like the complaint from Michigan, where a person in their 70s who lost $10,000 was convinced it had to be Musk because, “His profile picture was of him on Airforce 1 [sic] with Trump. He presented detailed information that Musk would know.”
Another man in Florida wrote about losing $41,000 after getting lured into a scam advertised with Elon Musk’s face on Facebook. The complaint explains how he slowly drained his retirement account of $32,000, and was “devastated” to realize he fell for a scam.
“I still am really bothered by it as someone who has taught personal finance and managed my home finances for decades, I cannot believe I was taken advantage of like this,” the man wrote to the FTC. “I lost the only money I had left and am hoping to recapture some of it back working with the federal government.”
Curiously, some people who realize they’ve been scammed still think they’re talking to the real Elon Musk. Like the Washington woman in her 70s who said she lost over $63,000. The scammers convinced her that she was actually in a romantic relationship with Musk and her complaint to the FTC is a desperate plea to get some of the money back for dental implant surgery. It’s clear from the complaint that she knows she was scammed but believed the scammer was Elon Musk, not some impersonator.
“I AM BEGGING YOU, PRETTY PLEASE, TO HELP ME RECOVER THE MONEY THAT HE SCAMMED ME,” the elderly woman wrote in all-caps. “HE IS A BILLIONAIRE, SO HE CAN AFFORD TO GIVE IT BACK TO ME.”
Someone in their 60s who lost $25,000 in South Carolina also seemed confused about whether they were talking to the real Elon Musk: “The question remains, is Musk involved with these scammers or is this just a taste of where AI is leading us to,” the complaint reads.
You can read a sample of the complaints Gizmodo obtained from the FTC below. Personal information in the complaints has been redacted by the agency, making it impossible to verify the veracity of each claim, but patterns emerge, and it can be valuable to see what scam artists are doing to swindle people out of money. Especially when they’re preying on vulnerable people who may not know any better.
Gizmodo has also made additional light redactions for privacy and occasional edits for punctuation or spelling, just for readability’s sake. But the substance of each complaint hasn’t been changed.
1. “I told him I wasn’t sending another penny and he needed to give me back my approximately $225,000”
Total reported loss: $225,000
Florida
Age: 65-69
Platforms: YouTube, Coinbase
April 2025
Approximately 1 month ago I was watching YouTube on television and Elon Musk was speaking and gave a talk about the Spacex rocket that crashed that day and then went on a side conversation about a QR code on the screen and guaranteed that if you send certain crypto to the address in the QR code you would receive double that amount back into your account within 5 minutes.
I had about $85,000 worth of this crypto in my Coinbase account so I decided to send 30,000 XRP tokens(around $75,000) to the QR Code address but I didn’t get anything back. I called Coinbase to tell them what happened and they told me the transaction didn’t go all the way through and they put me in touch with their refund people, a lady named [redacted] and a man named [redacted], whose name comes up with a Coinbase heading told me he’d be able to retrieve all of the missing money but first I had to transfer the remaining crypto in my account to several secure wallets because my entire account had been compromised by the scam I’d sent the XRP to and that my entire account could disappear if we didn’t do that immediately. So we transferred all approximately $145,000 of the remaining crypto in my account to the wallet addresses he sent me and to protect it.
After weeks of continuous contact with [redacted] and his continued promises that he would get my money back, said the original money was used for some illegal purposes and I’d need to send another $52,762 in Bitcoin in and he’d have all of my funds returned on Monday. I told him I wasn’t sending another penny and he needed to give me back my approximately $225,000. I also asked him if he had reported this to the FTC and he indicated that he had and I asked him for the case number. He said my case number is [redacted] and he had a man named officer [redacted] supposedly with the FTC call me. I spoke briefly with him and he tried to call me back but I didn’t answer. [Redacted] with Coinbase also tried to call me back but I haven’t gotten back with him. I need the FTCs help with this! I think the guy, [redacted], with Coinbase is a scammer so how can trust that this [redacted] is legit. Please get in touch with me!!
2. “In June I wired 102k”
Total reported loss: $120,000
Florida
Age: 40-49
Platforms: YouTube
July 2025
I watch youtube vids on financial topics. In late Jan. 2025 I saw an ad, it had Musk and AI in it. A website was referenced and it was since removed. A [redacted] reached out and welcomed me to their investment group, which was affiliated with OasisX Business school. To date the website is still up. I was mailed a book from the Dean/founder.
It began as a short to long term investment advise where we could invest with the brokerage of our choice. Then in March Professor [redacted] and the Precisco Trading Platform was introduced. I was gifted $500. We began Crypto Day Trading. We signed contracts to give the school 3 percent of our earnings. I was never told to pay. I moved over about 15K in ETH, BTC from coinbase into Precisco in April/May. My funds were growing.
In June I wired 102k to a p2p on the exchange to participate with a new coin launch. The wire went to a NYC bank. After June 25th the group went silent and my money in the platform frozen. I have since connected with 6 other victims totally 700K stolen, including from the elderly.
3. “I thought it was a real SpaceX site”
Total reported loss: $90,000
Arkansas
Age: 40-49
March 2025
During the SpaceX Starship 8 launch they played a video that looked like Elon Musk getting on stage at the launch site announcing a offer to get people to send crypto to SpaceX and they would match it and send it back to encourage crypto adoption. The video displayed a QR code that lead the the offer website and I thought it was a real SpaceX site and send bitcoin to participate in the offer. They made the video look real the website looks legitimate since it has the same look and feel of the actual SpaceX site. I know I lost my bitcoin, but I see the site is still active so hopefully the people who set it up can be caught and the site taken down so no others fall prey to the scam.
4. “All of sudden all my money was gone”
Total reported loss: $85,000
Georgia
Age: 40-49
Platforms: Instagram
July 2025
An ad ran on Instagram indicating Elon Musk was creating a Crypto app in which The Professor was in charge of handing – I was told to buy Bitcoin and than instructed to transfer to another DYIG app in which Elon was investing – all of sudden all my money was gone and I could not get it back.
5. “Someone in the Fan Club told her if she really wanted to talk with Elon, that he was on Telegram.”
Total reported loss: $75,000
Arizona
Age: 70-79
Platforms: Facebook, WhatsApp, Telegram, Eclipse
January 2025
Communicated with whom she thought was Elon Musk on Facebook, communication moved to Telegram. Someone in the Fan Club told her if she really wanted to talk with Elon, that he was on Telegram. Investment conversations and messages came through, encouraging her to Crypto Mine. He then sent her to WhatsApp, to his Manager. They signed her up on a trading platform for Crypto that was not in the United States, called Eclipse. She initially invested $700, but then there were all of these fees she had to pay in order to do so. She began to put more and more money in, but then she wanted to withdraw money, they loaded on more fees and she was not able to get her money. Money was sent via cryptocurrency, giftcards, and an attempt at Western Union.
6. “HE IS A BILLIONAIRE, SO HE CAN AFFORD TO GIVE IT BACK TO ME.”
Total reported loss: $65,300
Washington
Age: 70-79
Platforms: Twitter, X
June 2025
I personally met ELON MUSK via his social website X.com (Twitter.com). After a few Twitter.com exchanges, I believe, he told his Mom, Maye Musk, to befriend me — and that’s exactly what Maye Musk did and invited me to invest with TESLA, one of Elon’s companies. After several exchanges of emails, he wooed me and we became BF/GF, while giving him my initial investment of $3,000 as a start.
Then it went up to $10,500, between November 2022 (we met in the middle of November) to April 2023. From May 2023 to December 2023, the total sum amount that I’ve given was $17,600. From January to December of 2024, the total sum amount is $28,800. From January 2025 to April 2025, $8,400. All in all, the TOTAL SUM AMOUNT I have given him was $65,300.
I was shocked to find out when I did a search about him on the Internet that he had SCAMMED several elderly ladies with a whole lot of money from each and every one of them. To top it all, I also read on the Internet that he scammed some people, mostly men, with fake bitcoins, crypto, and deepfakes.
I AM BEGGING YOU, PRETTY PLEASE, TO HELP ME RECOVER THE MONEY THAT HE SCAMMED ME. HE IS A BILLIONAIRE, SO HE CAN AFFORD TO GIVE IT BACK TO ME. I DIDN’T MIND WHEN HE MADE ME FALL IN LOVE WITH HIM, BUT THE MONEY IS VERY IMPORTANT TO ME, AS I NEED IT FOR MY DENTAL IMPLANT SURGERY.
THANK YOU FOR THE KIND ATTENTION AND CONSIDERATION YOU HAVE GIVEN ME ON THIS MATTER. GOD BLESS AND HAVE A NICE DAY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
7. “He said that he would double your Crypto that you sent to him”
Total reported loss: $47,000.45
California
Age: 40-49
Platforms: YouTube, Coinbase
February 2025
There was a fake AI Video of Elon Musk on YouTube today Feb. 1, 2025, it ran for over 4 hours before it was taken down. He talked about different crypto currency, he said that he would double your Crypto that you sent to him, to a secure account backed by Space X. I sent a lot of DOGE coin and never got anything back. The address it was sent to is [redacted]
Please help, is there any way to get me money back?
I used Coinbase to send the crypto, I’ve already contacted them but they say there’s nothing they can do.
8. “I would deposit small amounts of money at a time and slowly drained my only retirement account of over $32K”
Total reported loss: $41,000
Florida
Age: 50-59
Platforms: CashApp, Robinhood
April 2025
Sometime during the month of October 2024 I saw a sponsored ad on Facebook that had Elon Musk in it talking about cryptocurrency and trading and the amount of money that could be made. When I clicked on it it took me to a Whatsapp group called EVW Business School A656. I watched the Whatsapp group I was taken to for about 2 months and then received a book in the mail as well as a phone call from the Admin assistant of EVW group stating this was a real school and a real group. It was not a scam. So I decided to start participating in December of 2024. Over the course of December through the end of March I funneled in $41K through my Cash App and my Robinhood account. I would deposit small amounts of money at a time and slowly drained my only retirement account of over $32K. I additionally took a cash advance of $5000 on my credit card in order to meet deposit requirements to qualify for a better return on my investments.
I was coerced into take a $100k loan at the end of an investment period in order to secure my million dollars plus for a return on my investment. It was called securing a large scale allotment. Initially I had spent $80K on just the initial subscription of a particular ICOSTO and then because of the way it was structured and the amount of people investing they created this large scale allotment concept to secure the highest possible return. This loan was secured through a Whatsapp site called C2C loan where I was taken from a tab within the app BFXN-Nova which the school had told me to download and was the main tool we used to invest in Crypto futures contract trading. And then led into the purchasing of ICOSTO’s. I gave a copy of the front and back of my license to both the app and the C2C loan people.
After the subscription went live I showed over $2 million dollars in my account and so I was going to pay the loan back with the proceeds. It was then that I found out that we had to use money from outside of this app to pay the loan. This was not disclosed until after the fact. Of course I did not have that money and negotiated for $5000 to be sent so that some of the funds could be unlocked. And I could pay my loan with that. However shortly after I deposited the $5000 (over several small deposits) I finally was starting to see red flags. I noticed no one ever responded to me in the group chat for EVW school. I noticed that the Admin or Michael were starting not to respond to me. And the C2C loan place slowly stopped responding as well. By this point I was figuring out that this may not be real. I was devastated knowing I fell for something like this. I still am really bothered by it as someone who has taught personal finance and managed my home finances for decades, I cannot believe I was taken advantage of like this. I lost the only money I had left and am hoping to recapture some of it back working with the federal government.
9. “He was very convincing, and I believed that he loved me”
Total reported loss: $25,000-30,000
North Carolina
Age: 65-69
Platforms: Telegram, Facebook, Instagram
June 2025
I was involved with a romance scammer that claimed to be Elon Musk. He proceeded to tell me that he needed to keep things personal and quiet because of his popularity, and that he needed my help. He promised to marry me and send money in my account to buy a house here in North Carolina. He claimed that the money that I was sending was for taxes on the money that he was sending. He was very convincing, and I believed that he loved me because he had been corresponding with me for a long time and then all the promises to come and see me and he never did he promised to come for us to get married and he didn’t show up Then he asked me to sell my car to come up with $25,000. That was when I just blew it. I will never sell my car at this point. I’m out at least maybe even closer to 30,000.
Then I got in touch with a lawyer. He claims to be a lawyer from California that said he could get my funds back for me that he had tracked and knew where they were at, and that the authorities were in good with getting the money back to me. The funds were going to be sent through crypto and the crypto needed $5,000 more to verify the account. At this point, I am not in a position to put any more money into these faults claims and scams. I just want to make sure that nobody else gets scammed by either imposters on X and telegram Facebook and Instagram. I have definitely learned my lesson not to trust anybody, ever again and give anybody money. I will never probably get my money back, but at least I will stay off the Internet and do not ever correspond with a romance scammer again.
I don’t know if there are any programs to help with getting my money back. it has devastating me financially. Luckily Ive prepaid my rent or I would be not able to pay my rent right now. my credit cards are getting dangerously behind. Thank God I have Social Security or I would be devastated completely. I am 65 years old and I do not need to keep going through this. It has made me ill and have high blood pressure and feeling very sick lately I don’t know what to do about this last scammers text that he keeps texting me on telegram asking me when I’m going to send the $5000 for the verification for it to be sent to me into my crypto account. I don’t know if I should disable my crypto account. At this point, I don’t know what to do. I need your help. I don’t even know anything about crypto or even know how to do this this scammer so-called working for the attorney walk me through. Said his name was Patrick getting all the stuff set up assured me that he was a lawyer from California. [redacted]. San Francisco, California. I did check with the bar. There is such a person, but whether this is the right person or not, I don’t know. He claims to be an attorney to help people reclaim their funds.
10. “The question remains, is Musk involved with these scammers or is this just a taste of where AI is leading us to”
Total reported loss: $25,000
South Carolina
Age: 60-64
Platforms:
May 2025
On or about January 20, 2025, I watched an on-line link with Elon Musk in an interview where he was stating that there was a crypto investment company that could net triple or more on your investment. After signing up, I was contacted by a representative who identified himself as [redacted] on January 23, 2025.
[Redacted] assisted with logging me into his company [redacted]. Once logged on and registered he explained the graphs and stated that I had to fund the account prior to investing. I funded the account with several bitcoin deposits which amounted to 5,000.00. the funds were sent from my cash app account I was then transferred to another accountant due to my investment reaching 50,000.00 in profit. the next accountant was named James Lawrence, and he promised a profit gain of 150,000.00 or more within two months. several more deposits from my cash app account by bitcoin was made to the new platform [redacted].
On several occasions I asked to withdraw my gains in bitcoin and was met with several excuses why I could not withdraw my funds. On 4/19/2025 I gained a profit of $439,900. and on 4/20/2025 a profit gain of 1,519,961.00. I immediately withdrew a total of $500,000.00 in three separate amounts. This is when I realized this was a scam and the only money transfers that were legal was the deposits I made to the above companies and accountants named. The sites are still online and live and I have screen shots of the deposits profit gains attempted withdraws and whatsapp email correspondence with accountant [redacted]. after the major profit gains and attempted withdrawals, accountant [redacted] called me and stated the profit gains were false due to the market crashing and again I could NOT withdraw any funds. Accountant [redacted] then told me that I could withdraw the 500,000.00 if I created an account on meta mask and fund the meta mask account with 10 of the 500,000.00 in ETH which is a volatile crypto currency. It is my belief that these individuals and the two companies listed above have scammed millions out of their hard-earned cash and by the time these investors realized they are being scammed it is too late.
It is also my belief that the use of Elon Musk and his likeness in these informercials lures individuals in due to his successful ventures. The question remains, is Musk involved with these scammers or is this just a taste of where AI is leading us to.
11. “Was watching the Starship launch…”
Total reported loss: $20,000
Virginia
Age: 40-49
June 2025
Was watching the Starship launch and when video cut to ELON Musk offering a crypto match, I sent $20K worth BTC for a match.
12. “There is someone on Instagram using the name Elon Reeve Musk”
Total reported loss: $17,000
New York
Age: 65-69
Platforms: Instagram, PayPal
March 2025
There is someone on Instagram using the name Elon Reeve Musk that talk to me about crypto currency and he will help me to invest and he stole 17,000 dollars from me by making a faked account with Atomic wallet telling me that my funds were 20,000 dollars and when i said that i want to take the money out of my account he start asking for 1000 dollars for the bank 500 for this 500 for that and by now he stole altogether from me 17,000 dollars and still never sent me my money. He is using PayPal to collect the money and this is the name’s that he use [redacted]
thank you i hope you will investigate and stop this fraud
13. “He said hii just know you are speaking to Elon Musk you don’t need to worry”
Total reported loss: $13,000
Washington
Age: 40-49
Platforms: Fake Tesla investment website, Facebook
July 2025
Below is the painfully financially strain process that the scammer has taken me:-
Hii am [redacted] i need help from the FBI government am really suffering .
I Invested the following amount in tesla investment stocks . I need to withdraw my money back.
– This guy put his number on Facebook then he said hii just know you are speaking to Elon Musk you don’t need to worry .
– Then he said would you like a new Tesla or you want to invest in my company Tesla investment stocks? I replied i need to Invest then he told me to google nearest Bitcoin Machine , I started buying bitcoins. I login in website I can see money but cant withdraw it . Please FBI investigate on this guy he has no Mercy he is so rude even now he is asking for more money!!! .
1. I used becu credit card that he said after using the $ 4400 he will add more money for me . He never added anything
2. I used chase credit card same thing
3. Used debit card that we used most of times to purchase bitcoin through cash app crypto.com, bipay apps
4. I suffered alot psychological when he couldn’t let me withdraw my money .
5. I invested in a premium plan worthy 5000
6. Paid 2000 for tesla withdrawal card
7. Paid 3700 to fix a glitch in my tesla account
8. Paid 2000 to pay for shipping of my tesla withdrawal card, then he said its in the storage, i should lay storage fees, so expensive
However:-
9. It emerged that storage fees worthy 10, 000 was again to be paid by me .I paid 4,400 already using the gift cards that he forced mecto buy send to him i still have pictures on my phone . Then he said he willl pay the rest
( Promised to pay $ 5000) for me. But he did not
10. I Also bought 4 credit cards worthy 200 , 2004 in total I spent $ 800 more oh my God this guy need to be arrested. The FBI needs to check his phone location arrest him immediately.!! He has made me bankrupt. I need Justice from the government.
14. “He is very ill, stage 4 metatastic prostate cancer”
Total reported loss: $10,000
Florida
Age: 70-79
Platforms: WhatsApp
July 2025
My husband thinks he is texting with Elon Musk who has invited him to join a select group of investors. He opened a crypto account with Fidelity and transferred $10,000. to to it. When I saw it I made him try to put back the funds. He said they won’t let him cancel this deal. He is very ill, stage 4 metatastic prostate cancer, and relapsed multiple myeloma. Heavily medicated and does not believe he is being scammed. He showed me texts from that number and whoever it is threatened to take him to court if he doesn’t invest. I have tried to stop this and told him to let them take you to court.
They communicated on WhatsApp. I don’t think they have ever used email. It is very difficult to reason with my poor husband who in better days was a public defender, assistant state attorney who handled career criminals and capital cases. I cant go to local authorities as he would be embarrassed. I have no doubt this is a fraudulent scheme. He has spent alot of unsupervised time online with investing programs.
15. “His profile picture was of him on Airforce 1 with Trump.”
Total reported loss: $10,000
Michigan
Age: 70-79
Platforms: X, Telegram
May 2025
I believe that I am the victim of an investment with Elon Musk scam. I was originally contacted through messages on X, first by one of Musk’s employees, then by one of his children. They sent me his Telegram contact information. After a couple of exchanges, I realized that it was a marketing scheme and ended contact. Then a woman claiming to he Musk’s mother contacted me.
She encouraged me to contact Musk, which I did. We had delightful conversations. His profile picture was of him on Airforce 1 with Trump. He presented detailed information that Musk would know. At this point, I believed that this was real. Then he presented his Tesla doge pro investment opportunity. I went to the website and signed up. At first there was no pressure to fund my account. The website seemed genuine, with pictures of Musk, his board of directors and information about investment opportunities. Musk asked me how much I wanted to invest. I told him $5000. I started with $500. Then the pressure started. At this point, I think that I was emotionally invested or didn’t want to admit that I had been taken in by the scam. I invested the $5000 that I had agreed to.
Then I was informed that my account had to be at $20,000 before I could withdraw any funds. I told him I didn’t have $10,000 to invest. Musk then told me that if I invested $5,000 more, he would add $10,000 to bring my account up to $20,000. He then gave me a withdrawl date for my account. That day came but there was more pressure to invest an additional $10,000. I refused. So he sent me a copy of the withdrawl record. The distribution was to be in etherium sent to my crypto wallet. Before he would send the funds, I was required to pay 4 etherium which was about $10,216.00. The calculated value of the account was $26,430,000.00 on a one month investment of $20,000. I knew now that this was some sort of ponzi scam. After I refused to take any distribution, he then told me I was required to add $10,000 to my account. My response was or what? He then told me that the brokerage rules were that the account would be made dormant. If it were dormant, it could be subject to inactivity fees, unavailability and possible closure. I knew at this point that the $10,000 I had given them was long gone. I haven’t communicated with him since receiving the information about making the account dormant.
I’ve been taking screen shots of selected exchanges. We’ve been communicating on WhatsApp so I know that he can’t delete anything contained on my device, but if he deletes his account, there will be no reference to who sent it. The disconcerting thing about all of this is that there are other fraudulent sites out there that use Musk’s image and reputation to attract victims. There was one on Facebook recently that was taken down. I just saw one today in my news feed that said $500 to invest with Elon. The website site that I had access to was very impressive but none of the links work and there is no customer service. Musk either doesn’t know, doesn’t care or is somehow complicit in these schemes.
16. “Many YouTube videos promoting a fake Elon Musk cryptocurrency”
Total reported loss: $10,000
Washington
Age: 60-64
Platforms: YouTube, Fake xAI site
July 2025
Many YouTube videos promoting a fake Elon Musk cryptocurrency. The token itself goes by the following: XAI, XAI22P, $XA77P, etc. It is constantly changing with new presale sites going up for the past 6 months. They offer presales the token with bonuses ranging from 50 to 200 depending on the amount of tokens you purchase. A presale page opens with your choice of using BTC, USDT, XRP, BNB and other cryptocurrencies to send to them for payment. Each different payment type (BTC, XRP, USDT, etc) opens a page with a crypto wallet destination to send your crypto for payment. Here is the one I sent my USDT to: Send USDT to: [redacted]
Here are other payment addresses:
Send BTC to: [redacted]
Send ETH to: [redacted]
Send BNB to: [redacted]
Send XRP to: [redacted]
Send DOGE to: ([redacted]
Send SOL to: [redacted]
After you send them your crypto payment, you will see this message: Waiting for transaction…
PLEASE READ: Once you’ve successfully deposited the funds, remain on this page until the transaction status changes to completed. Once marked as complete, you will be redirected to set up your xAI Wallet.
The above message continues on with no response after you send your payment.
17. “She received a text message on Telegram from someone claiming to be Elon Musk”
Total reported loss: $9,185.94
Age: 60-64
Platforms: Telegram, Coinbase, CashApp, Apple gift cards
June 2025
On 5/23/25 Ms. Henry got a message on telegram from Elon Musk with found Space X Tesla and Crypto. Telegram only. She received a text message on Telegram from someone claiming to be Elon Musk, stating that money had been deposited into her Coinbase account. However, she was informed that she needed to pay taxes before she could access the funds.
This report concerns an online scam targeting my mother, involving a combination of cryptocurrency fraud and a romance scam, resulting in substantial financial loss and continued manipulation. The scam began on Facebook and later transitioned to WhatsApp and Telegram for private communication.
18. “My mother was contacted via Facebook by an individual impersonating Elon Musk”
Total reported loss: $8,000
Tennessee
Age: 70-79
Platforms: Facebook, WhatsApp, Telegram
June 2025
My mother was contacted via Facebook by an individual impersonating Elon Musk, offering a supposed opportunity to invest in cryptocurrency. The scammer appeared convincing and used fake credentials and language associated with legitimate investment promotions.
She was persuaded to invest an initial sum of $5,000 USD through a cryptocurrency platform, which has since been identified as fraudulent. The platform provided no transparency, withdrawal options, or legitimate proof of investment activity. All signs point to it being a fake crypto exchange set up to defraud users.
Shortly after the initial payment, the scammer shifted the communication to WhatsApp and Telegram, where he continued to manipulate my mother by initiating a romantic relationship. This emotional manipulation is characteristic of a romance scam a tactic where fraudsters build false emotional connections to extort money over time.
The scammer maintained regular contact and gradually increased the emotional dependency of the victim. He made repeated requests for additional funds under various pretexts, such as travel expenses, legal issues, and urgent investment opportunities. These requests were accompanied by emotional appeals and fabricated narratives to secure compliance.
19. “3 year talked to him.”
Total reported loss: $8,000
South Carolina
Age: 70-79
Platforms: Zangi
July 2025
3 year talked to him. He had me go to zangi App for security reasons. He used this
Wallet to send payments for crypto transfer [redacted]
My name is [redacted]
20. “I was lead to this site by who I believed was Elon Musk.”
Total reported loss; $1,470
Texas
Age: 65-69
Platforms: Fake Tesla trading site
July 2025
I was lead to this site by who I believed was Elon Musk.
He explained that I could invest and have an account trading crypto. I did make a small investment and then was told I needed to deposit additional fund to start trading. after that I was told I had to pay a brokers fee to access a pin number needed to withdrawal fund that were awarded during trading…
I am told now by another person on X the claims to be Elon Musk that this site is a scam and I need to report it.
21. “These people are frauds and so is Elon Musk”
Total reported loss: $689
Colorado
Age: 40-49
Platforms: XChato
June 2025
XChato-Elon Musk and his stupid $1500 bonus where if you make a couple deposits you can withdraw all your money. Well I’ve gotten scammed. First it was $150 to verify your account then it’s $300 to claim ownership of account. But they lie, now it’s I have to deposit 1,000 in crypto to access my withdrawl of $2189.00. These people are frauds and so is Elon Musk
22. “They had me try to take out a loan and also create an ID.me account.”
Total reported loss: $349
Connecticut
Age: 20-29
Platforms: Signal, Telegram, Cashapp
July 2025
Was messages by Maye Musk private account (but not actually her and the messages were then deleted, the account disappeared or I was blocked by the account). I was commended foe the work I was doing, I believe on my startup, and was asked to message elon on TG but suggested Signal. They took my signal username and then messaged me from an account with the name Elon Musk, username and phone number hidden on the signal. We messaged for 3 months they impersonated elon very well. They had me fill out a doge form and send my passport photo. They had me try to take out a loan and also create an ID.me account.
They started to also send me money from random cashapp accounts which they then had me convert the cash to crypto and send it to some addresses.
Bitcoin: [redacted]
Usdt tron: [redacted]
Doge: [redacted]