Hackers Impersonate Crypto Exchange Gemini on YouTube

A hacker took over two YouTube accounts to appear as though they were associated with crypto exchange Gemini, according to a tweet from the company yesterday. 

YouTube does not allow impersonations of people or channels on its platform, but impersonations remain an ongoing issue for the social media giant. On this occasion, the hackers rebranded the relevant YouTube accounts with Gemini’s brand name, as well as the crypto exchange’s logo. And Gemini wasn’t too happy.

“These scam accounts are not our company. We have reported these accounts to YouTube,” said Gemini’s official Twitter account yesterday. 

What’s more, this is a problem that has appeared to persist for Gemini in recent months. 

In October of this year, Twitter user Anndy Lian publicly asked YouTube to bring down fake videos that pretended to be associated with Gemini, as well as the crypto exchange’s co-founders and brothers, Tyler and Cameron Winklevoss. 

“Come on YouTube, please get rid of this (sic) fake LIVE videos, 105,000 watching, 2800 likes. I am sure Tyler Winklevoss, Cameron Winklevoss, Gemini are not and will not run such schemes,” Lian said. 

In July, Gemini itself addressed yet another scam alert, admitting it had been “getting DMs about fake Gemini profiles on various social media platforms.” 

Gemini is not alone in running into problems on Youtube. Ripple CTO David Schwartz was banned in April for impersonating...himself. Looks like YouTube just can’t quite hit its mark.