Elon Musk’s X now locks users’ accounts the moment they post about cryptocurrencies for the first time. Users have to verify their identity before they can post again.
The company says it is pursuing hackers who break into accounts and use them to advance bogus investment schemes. Nikita Beer runs product development at X. He said the system is triggered when an account mentions cryptocurrencies for the first time ever.
The change “should kill 99% of the incentives” for criminals to steal accounts, according to Pierre. he He replied Under It was actually a fake login page. After entering their password and security codes, the attackers took over the accounts, locked them out, and began posting fraudulent promotions.
account Steal like this There has been a problem since the platform was still called Twitter. The new shutdown builds on previous efforts to stop spam networks and organized groups running cryptocurrency promotions. Bear also criticized Google. He said the email company doesn’t do anything to prevent phishing messages from arriving through Gmail. He described autolock as a workaround to a problem that X cannot solve directly.
Cryptocurrency scams drain $6.1 billion as reports rise beyond 2024 levels
The Federal Trade Commission is tracking cryptocurrency-related scams on social media. It has become a multi-billion dollar problem. Victims usually cannot recover their money because you cannot reverse blockchain transactions. This is why stolen accounts with followers are so valuable to criminals.
People trust posts from accounts they know. Insurance breaks this by preventing scammers from using a stolen account immediately. During the first nine months of 2025, people reported 113,842 investment scams. Total losses amounted to $6.1 billion. This puts 2025 on track to beat 2024, when 121,000 scams were reported with losses worth $5.8 billion. Scammers seized $1.5 billion in cryptocurrencies during the third quarter of 2025, according to Multivol. This is higher than $1 billion in the same period in 2024.
Only bank transfers transferred more money to criminals. People aged 40 to 49 years provided the most reports. They made 9,513 of them and lost $366 million in total. The typical loss was $7,405. Americans ages 30 to 70 face much higher risks than younger or older groups.
Social media platforms account for 38% of investment fraud, as Google withdraws spam protection
Social media was the starting point for 38% of investment scams. This is more than any other method. Another 17% started on websites or apps. The number of victims first contacted via social media rose from 4,889 in 2020 to 26,569 in 2024. During the third quarter of 2025, there were 20,715 reports. In 2020, only 29% of these scams started on social media platforms.
Things could get worse when Google shuts down Gmailify in January 2026. The tool lets people link their Yahoo, AOL, and Outlook accounts to Gmail and use its spam filters. Google is also stopping automatic pulling of emails from other services into Gmail. Users who rely on these features may not notice until spam starts creeping in.
American households lose about $119 billion annually to digital fraud. This is according to the Consumer Federation of America. the appreciation This comes from the FBI’s statistic of $16.6 billion in reported cyber crimes through 2024.
String analysis found Cryptocurrency scams It brought in at least $14 billion in 2025. That’s up from $9.9 billion in 2024. He believes This number could reach $17 billion once more criminal wallets are identified. Average fraud payments jumped from $782 in 2024 to $2,764 in 2025. Impersonation scams increased by 1,400% compared to last year. Average payouts increased by more than 600%.
