Facebook verified Bitcoin scammer posing to be Elon Musk, but the page is now deleted

The page, which had 153,000 followers (now inaccessible), acknowledged in its ‘About’ section that it is a fan page. It says: “This is a fan page, uploading tweets, etc from him.” In addition, the Page Transparency section of the fan page notes that the people who manage the page are “based in Egypt,” not in the US, which is where Musk resides.

The account had 11 posts, and while most of them are just reposts of Musk’s tweets, the most recent one was a phony Bitcoin giveaway, as per a report by The Verge.

The fan page, started in July 2019, under the name, Kizito Gavin. Since then the page changed its name six times, twice to Elon Musk. Yet, the page was officially verified as belonging to Elon Musk.

Meanwhile, in 2018, Musk deleted his Facebook page and made it public that he is not on the platform.

“It’s not a political statement and I didn’t do this because someone dared me to do it. Just don’t like Facebook. Gives me the willies. Sorry,” Musk said in a tweet. Interestingly, Musk owned Tesla and SpaceX does not have any official page on Facebook. Last year, he also tweeted, “Facebook sucks.”

It is worth noting that Facebook verification requires account owners to submit proof of their identity, including driver’s license or passport, but it seems that scammers have at times found ways around the official process.

As of writing this article, the page seems to be inaccessible. It’s unclear if Facebook took it down or the owners chose to make it unavailable.