Crypto scammers are using Elon Musk's DOGE to defraud people

Public and private alarm has spiked since Elon Musk officially began executing the so-called Department of Government Efficiency's agenda by gaining access to sensitive databases, dismantling federal agencies, and unceremoniously firing workers by the thousands.

But now there is another reason to worry about DOGE: Scammers are capitalizing on increased interest in its actions in order to defraud people of cryptocurrency, according to the online protection company McAfee, which researches and monitors digital scams.

Specifically, the scammers are taking advantage of confusion about Musk's DOGE initiative and dogecoin, a cryptocurrency founded in 2013 that Musk has also publicly spoken about. Indeed, Musk apparently derived DOGE's name from the doge meme.

Musk is such a fan of the meme, which features a breed of dog known as a shiba inu, that he once replaced X's famous bird with a picture of the doge icon for a limited time. He also recently posted without comment on X, the social platform that he owns, a cartoon rendering of the shiba inu holding an American flag surrounded by the phrase "Department of Government Efficiency."

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The scams that McAfee spotted have largely featured Musk or DOGE in some capacity. Some also include a similar logo. The most prominent schemes invite victims to send dogecoin to a private wallet, with the promise that they'll receive more dogecoin in return.

But DOGE has nothing to do with dogecoin. And victims certainly won't receive free dogecoin in return for their contribution.

"The fact that people don't really understand that they're two very different things just adds a lot of confusion," McAfee chief technology officer Steve Grobman told Mashable.

Grobman said it was unclear why victims might believe that they'd profit off giving their dogecoin away. He speculated that Musk's status as the richest person in the world might be persuasive to victims who are hopeful that he'd part with dogecoin simply because he can.

Additionally, Grobman said that scammers can be convincing when they promise guaranteed returns or high profits, and they frequently use the likeness of trusted public figures to promote fake coins or crypto investments.

It's worth noting that big events that involve Musk, like SpaceX launches, tend to attract scammers and command consumers' attention, while cryptocurrency is generally rife with fraud and insider trading.

But on Thursday Musk himself, as well as President Donald Trump, gave people reason to believe that DOGE might be sending money back to American taxpayers in the form of dividend checks, courtesy of the alleged savings DOGE has yielded. Musk floated the idea of a "DOGE Dividend," which would reimburse taxpayers, courtesy of the alleged savings from DOGE's cost-cutting measures and savings; Trump originally suggested a $5,000 refund.

DOGE has claimed an estimated $55 billion in savings so far, but experts say its calculations don't add up. Nevertheless, the prospect of a dividend may give scammers an even bigger opportunity to pounce on unsuspecting victims than they have now.

One scheme McAfee spotted cloned the official DOGE website but added a button to "Claim $DOGE bonus." Victims who provide between 10,000 $DOGE, (roughly $2,500) and 1,000,000 $DOGE (about $250,000) will supposedly receive between 30,000 $DOGE (around $7,500) and 3,000,000 $DOGE (about $750,000).

Grobman said that the scams leveraged classic techniques for deceiving victims, like creating a sense of urgency and portraying the exchange as a limited opportunity to make money.

He recommended strategies for identifying such schemes, like not engaging with an unknown entity in any financial exchange; never sending your cryptocurrency to an unverified wallet; using means of payment that have fraud protection, like a credit card; and carefully studying websites and email addresses for signs that they are legitimate, such as a .gov address.

He also warned against visiting websites that might capture your email or platform credentials. Some crypto scams are designed to harvest victims' personal information or steal the contents of their crypto wallet. In general, Grobman said that if something appears too good to be true, it probably is.

Still, the hype around crypto is becoming widespread. In addition to Musk's own embrace of crypto, the public may also be more receptive to exploring the currency given that Trump launched a memecoin of his own just days before his January 20 inauguration.

The Trump family and its partners made over $100 million from $TRUMP and that's just from the trading fees alone, according to an analysis performed by the New York Times. While a few outliers appeared to get rich, more than 810,000 crypto wallets have lost a combined $2 billion so far, according to the Times. Still, some observers may see a scam that seems affiliated with DOGE and think their bet is worth the risk.

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Potential victims of DOGE-related scams may also be intrigued by efforts that seem to link their participation with a broader effort to contribute to and achieve so-called government efficiency, like the DOGE website clone.

Musk's DOGE has already posted an open call on X for the general public to send the entity any tips for reducing waste, fraud, and abuse. With consumers invested in a game show-like search for government spending that they find fraudulent, some may feel like a "reward" promised by these scam websites could be a real offer.

Grobman said scammers operate much like legitimate businesses by testing certain strategies, amplifying what works and ditching what doesn't.

"We see some testing going on right now," Grobamn said, referring to the scams invoking DOGE. "If they get good returns from these tests, they'll double down on them."

Matt Binder contributed reporting to this article.