A survey in that chat found that between 52 people who responded, a total of US$223,494 was estimated to have been lost in these crypto scams. In YouTube videos discovered by Mashable, Tang would utilize other common QAnon beliefs about the "banking cabals" and news media to sell her followers on these scam crypto assets.Īccording to Logically, their research led to a Telegram support group made-up of those who were scammed by the two QAnon influencers and were trying to warn others. The Telegram channel was a major influence on some of the more cult-like QAnon phenomena, including an assembly at Dealey Plaza in Texas last year, during which adherents believed that the assassinated former president was going to reveal that he was actually alive. In fact, Whiplash347 was a major disseminator of conspiracy theories about the Kennedy's. Kennedy's deceased son is still alive and a supporter of Trump. QAnon followers have long-believed that JFK Jr., President John F. They would claim this investing knowledge came from "secret military intelligence" and that this meant they "knew which assets were going to succeed." According to the Logically report, the Telegram chat leaders would also reference supposed connections to "Donald Trump, Elon Musk, and JFK Jr," and claim that "aliens will facilitate a 'quantum' wealth transfer to the followers." The channels release investment advice regarding which cryptocurrency assets to buy into. The QAnon influencers appear to use these conspiracies in their money-making schemes. The movement itself was built upon the lie that former President Donald Trump was trying to takedown a global Satanic child sex trafficking ring run by baby-eating Hollywood elites and members of the Democratic Party. This scam, however, netted the QAnon influencers approximately US$2 million according to Logically.įollowers of the vast right-wing conspiracy theory QAnon have a number of outrageous and obviously false beliefs. Logically could not find any information to back this claim up. Logically found that none of these tokens had any connections to the companies they were named after.įor example, Sungold token, which was pitched to their followers as being "backed by a Kazakh gold mine," was supposedly "linked" to a Russian company of the same name. In fact, many of the scam cryptocurrencies followed a similar naming pattern in order to make them sound connected to an actual real company. The tokens were created under the domain name "Indus.Gold," and the QAnon influencers would tell their followers that the crypto was backed by a real New York bank with a similar name. This is commonly known as a "rug pull" in the crypto space. Stellar, a network like Bitcoin or Ethereum, allows anyone to create their own tokens in " 5 easy steps." The QAnon influencers would create scam tokens and then transfer their holdings out for real money or more establish cryptocurrency after telling their followers to invest. Logically's detailed report follows just how these crypto scams played out on the Stellar blockchain. “ were promoting pump and dumps, and this appeared to be a very large and well organized Ponzi Scheme.” “I am without doubt that Whiplash347, Emily, and QSI are scam artists,” said a former admin of the QSI chats, Rocky Morningside, to Logically. PatriotQakes - who, unlike Whiplash347, has also gone by her real name, Emily Tang - also runs the Quantum Stellar Initiative (QSI) Telegram channel, which has 30,000 subscribers. Whiplash347, an anonymous QAnon influencer, has built a Telegram channel with 277,000 subscribers thanks to his promotion of QAnon conspiracy theories over the years. The two, along with other leaders in the chats, frequently weaponize QAnon conspiracy theories in order to sucker their fans into investing in their various cryptocurrency schemes.Īccording to Logically's research, the two mainly use their Telegram channels to run their scams. Using their large followings on Telegram, QAnon influencers Whiplash347 and PatriotQakes have promoted numerous fraudulent tokens to their followers on the messaging platform. Two QAnon influencers are using their cachet within their conspiratorial communities to prey on their followers and bilk them out of millions of dollars via cryptocurrency scams, according to a new report by the tech-based fact-checking firm Logically. You may not have heard very much about QAnon in recent months, but believers in the right-wing conspiracy theory are very much still around.Īnd those believers are proving to be easy-to-dupe marks for influential QAnon promoters looking to make money.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |