YouTube has been criticized for failing to tackle a cybercriminal network that broadcasts fake Elon Musk videos to deceive viewers.
Criminals hijack YouTube accounts and use videos to promote fake cryptocurrency giveaways.
News found that tens of thousands of people viewed ten of the streams over four days of the month.
On Tuesday, Elon Musk said YouTube is not fighting fraudulent ads. Instead, YouTube said it would remove the reported channel.
For months, the stream has tricked thousands of people into sending cryptocurrency to criminals, thinking they would receive a gift from Mr. Musk.
Portfolio transaction history shows scammers made $243,000 (£194,000) in just over a week:
23 bitcoin transfers for a total of 7,689223261 coins worth $234,000
18 Ethereum transfers totaling 5,016 coins worth $9,000
Whale Alert analysts say the portfolio of scammers they track is showing gains:
$98 million in 2021
$30 million so far this year
Every few days, hackers change the names and images of dozens of YouTube channels to look like the official channels of Tesla, the electric car maker whose CEO, Mr. Musk.
They are believed to have bought email addresses and password pairs from previous data breaches online – or tried regular passwords with known email addresses.
Chilean urban music artist Aisack was hacked and kidnapped on his YouTube channel two weeks ago.
“My followers on other social networks started asking what’s wrong with my channel name also got confused about why I was streaming Tesla content,” he said.
“It’s very disappointing that your YouTube channel has been hacked after so many years of dedication.
“I felt very disturbed also insecure.
“Having a channel is very painful for me because, in a few days, I will be releasing a new music video, and now I am creating a second channel as a backup and uploading to YouTube for more than ten years.