Metallica is predictably not happy about it.
Metallica announced their latest record 72 Seasons last week and the scams have rolled in hard and fast. If you’ve been on YouTube at all throughout the past week, you’ve likely seen some official-looking livestream about some sort of Metallica crypto giveaway. They’re all bullshit.
Metallica has addressed the scams on their social media accounts, saying fans should only be getting information about Metallica from their official social media accounts. Which makes sense, but of course not everyone is Internet literate, and those are exactly the folks these scams are preying on.
According to one report, a Manhattan, KS resident was scammed out of $25,500 of Bitcoin from a fake Metallica stream.
“In the wake of last week’s exciting news of our new song, new album, and new tour, unfortunately the ugly side of social media made an appearance. Many of you have let us know about YouTube channels and live streams, as well as websites, claiming to offer Metallica Crypto giveaways in conjunction with last week’s announcement.
“Let’s be as clear as possible. These are scams. They’re being streamed on fake YouTube channels posing to be ours and all pointing to websites that we do not run. Please remember — all of our official social media channels are verified. Always look for official verification before believing something wild and crazy to be true. We thank all of you who have been vigilant in reporting these live streams to YouTube and to us… please don’t let up!”
“Be familiar with the symbols that indicate an official channel and report anything that is a scam!”
And frankly, shame on YouTube for letting this happen. I’ve logged into my personal YouTube account and have seen a few of these fake livestreams being promoted on my homepage.
