Read the complaints filed with the FTC about scams that use Elon Musk's face.

Gizmodo filed a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request with the FTC to get complaints sent to the federal agency about crypto scams that pretend to be affiliated with Musk. We obtained 247 complaints, all filed between Feb. and Oct. of this year, and they’re filled with stories of people who believed they were watching ads for authentic crypto investments sanctioned by Musk on social media.

The ads sometimes featured the names of Musk’s various companies, like SpaceX, Tesla, and X, while other times they utilized Musk’s association with neo-fascist presidential candidate Donald Trump.

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Some people in the complaints believed they were talking directly with Musk, a sadly common story that has popped up in news reports before. But they weren’t talking with Musk, of course. They were communicating with scammers engaging in what’s called pig butchering—the name for a type of fraud popularized in the mid-2010s where scammers extract as much money as possible through flattery and promises of tremendous profits if the victim just “invests” where they’re told.

    • finitebanjo@lemmy.worldEnglish
      1211·
      15 days ago

      They might also just be the target demographic for pig butchering.

      • Middle Class
      • Over 40
      • Conservative Male (lonely)
      • Greedy / Self-serving

      But yeah there is definitely correlation with low cognitive ability.

      • Echo Dot@feddit.ukEnglish
        28·
        15 days ago

        You also have to be the sort of person that genuinely believes you can get something for nothing. You have to have a relatively low IQ for that to be the case.

        You also have to have a relatively low IQ to continue to listen to anything Musk says, so the group are Self-Selecting.

        • ℍ𝕂-𝟞𝟝@sopuli.xyzEnglish
          4·
          15 days ago

          You need to believe that you can get ahead in society by being smarter than the competition, instead of just being luckier.

          They are naive if anything.

        • captainlezbian@lemmy.worldEnglish
          1·
          15 days ago

          Not really. You have to be the sort of person who understands that investment works and not how it works or why it works and most importantly why you aren’t going to hit the jackpot on it even though some people do. They’re the standard marks for an investment con. So yeah they’re stupid and self selected, but the mechanism of action is important because it shows us how to help people avoid falling for it not just letting us feel superior to those who do.

          • Echo Dot@feddit.ukEnglish
            2·
            15 days ago

            I feel like everyone understands the basic concept behind investment. But I also feel like pretty much everyone knows that there’s no such thing as a free lunch.

            Whenever you invest in something it’s pretty obvious what the other party’s motivations are. If you cannot see how the other party could possibly benefit, then it’s probably because it’s a scam.