A popular YouTube channel has been hijacked and is currently live-streaming a purported inquire-me-annihilation (AMA) with Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong.

However, the stream, which appears to have been running for 12 hours at printing fourth dimension on April 6, is a scam, encouraging users to ship Bitcoin (BTC) payments, with the promise of a non-existent five,000 BTC giveaway.

Classic crypto scam gets a fresh coat of paint

The YouTube scam follows a like format to the well-known Twitter con, whereby a spoof business relationship will exist fix to mimic a well-known crypto or glory figure. Said effigy has a large amount of Bitcoin or Ether (ETH) to give away, and by sending some of your own cryptocurrency to a given address, victims are promised between two and ten times the corporeality in render.

On this occasion, somebody has managed to hack into an already established YouTube aqueduct, TopTenz, which boasts 1.63 1000000 subscribers. The channel has been rebranded as "CoinbasePRO English."

The channel has been alive-streaming the AMA using sometime, looped footage of Brian Armstrong answering viewers' questions.

The stream too has a Bitcoin address and QR code, promising that any Bitcoin sent will immediately take double the amount returned. Of course, sending Bitcoin to this address will result in zippo more than losing your coins.

Over $50,000 stolen… and counting

According to the Blockchain block explorer, only ane transaction, with a value of 0.44 BTC has been sent to the address currently being promoted through the "giveaway." The address has only been alive for 2 hours, while the two previous addresses advertised received two.548 BTC and four.209 BTC respectively.

This makes a total of almost 7.ii BTC stolen so far — with a value of over $51,200 at press time.

Perhaps a more than pertinent question than how much the scam has gained would be, "How can this still be happening live after 11 hours?"

YouTube, Coinbase, and the TopTenz YouTube did not immediately reply to Cointelegraph's requests for comment. This article will exist updated should they answer.