Steve Wozniak is suing YouTube for allowing scammers to use his name and likeness on fake bitcoin gifts.
According to the lawsuit, filed in the Superior Court of the State of California, the criminals have been posting videos on the platform alleging that Wozniak is organizing a bitcoin promotion. They convince users that if they send bitcoins to a given address, “Wozniak” will return double the amount.
“YouTube has featured a steady stream of fraudulent videos and promotions using images and videos of plaintiff Steve Wozniak and other famous tech entrepreneurs, and who have defrauded YouTube users with millions of dollars,” the complaint says.
The lawsuit includes screenshots of videos announcing Wozniak’s “5,000-BTC” and “10,000-BTC” gifts, including images of the Apple co-founder. There also appear to be videos using the image of other tech leaders, including Elon Musk, Bill Gates, and financial self-help guru Robert Kiyosaki.
The plaintiffs, which include Wozniak and 17 others, allege that YouTube is aware of these scams, but has not removed the videos.
“Despite repeated pleas from Plaintiffs and legions of other users that YouTube take timely action to end this bitcoin giveaway scam, YouTube repeatedly delayed or refused to do so,” the lawsuit says. “As a result of the defendants’ egregious failures to act and affirmative misconduct in promoting this criminal enterprise, plaintiff Wozniak has suffered and continues to suffer irreparable damage to his reputation, and YouTube users, including plaintiffs They have been defrauded of millions of dollars Among other relief measures, Plaintiffs are requesting an order requiring YouTube to finally end its scandalous practice of hosting, promoting and benefiting from these criminally fraudulent videos and promotions. ”
“We take abuse of our platform seriously and take prompt action when we detect violations of our policies, such as scams or phishing, “a YouTube spokesperson said in a statement to The Verge
Fraudulent “gifts” have long been a feature of the bitcoin world, but are receiving more attention after a network-wide hack on Twitter that took advantage of account access to carry out the scam on a large scale. Last week, hackers accessed the accounts of several high-profile users, including Barack Obama, Joe Biden, Elon Musk, Bill Gates, Kanye West, and Michael Bloomberg. Hackers used the breached accounts to advertise fraudulent gifts, claiming that users who sent bitcoins to a given address would receive double the amount in return. The scam is believed to have earned its creators nearly $ 120,000. (The YouTube scam, while also targeting bitcoin owners, does not appear to involve compromised account information.)
Twitter recognized that situation about an hour after it started, tweeting from its support: “We are investigating and taking steps to fix it.” The company eventually blocked all verified accounts from tweeting while investigating the incident, a move that was in place for more than two hours.
“We all feel terrible that this has happened,” wrote Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey later in the evening. “We are diagnosing and we will share as much as we can when we have a more complete understanding of what exactly happened.”
