Scammers have started impersonating fans on social media in an effort to lure them in before the highly anticipated release and tour of the Metallica band's 72 seasons album.
Metallica is cautioning fans to be on the lookout for phony cryptocurrency giveaways and other frauds just before the release of their 72 Seasons album in order to quickly prevent this.
The news about Metallica's band position comes in the wake of revelations about YouTube impersonations, phony verified Twitter accounts, and the alleged theft of almost $25,000 in Bitcoin from a 51-year-old Manhattan resident by means of a front-runned false Metallica YouTube channel.
On December 6th, Metallica stated:
“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 clear as possible. These [metallic crypto giveaways] are scams.”
They also added:
“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 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 live stream to YouTube and to us… Please don’t let it up!”
Metallica went a step further by revealing its official social media accounts and advising followers to get used to the symbols.
“Be familiar with the symbols that indicate an official channel and report anything that is a scam!”
To prevent followers from falling for the common cryptocurrency giveaway scams, the band's Twitter account also provided a list of their official social media accounts. The band released on a tweet on their official account:
⚠️ pic.twitter.com/KmlofVdiBM
— Metallica (@Metallica) December 6, 2022
Development of Metallica's Present Stance Against Fraud
In a report, the blockchain security company Certik claimed that the current Metallica scams are a contributing factor in the 500% increase in YouTube front-running scams over the previous year. CrediK stated:
“We analyzed YouTube for videos mentioning the phrase “front running bot” and found that of a sample of 232 videos, 84% were scams. The videos we analyzed started to circulate in 2021 and, as can be seen in the table below, saw a six-fold increase in 2022. Many videos can be clearly identified as scams from their title alone.”
