On June 17, KwakTube shared the news of his identity theft on his social media, writing in English, "I'm a YouTuber from Korea, never even tried coins. He stole my picture."
The incident began on June 8 when Terence Kwok, the CEO of the cryptocurrency project 'Humanity Protocol,' changed his social media profile picture to KwakTube's face. Humanity Protocol recently suffered a massive hacking attack, causing its token price to plummet by over 80%. The resulting losses for investors are estimated to be around $36 million (approximately 54.4 billion KRW).
As fierce protests from investors worldwide poured in, CEO Terence Kwok pulled a bizarre stunt by suddenly changing his social media profile picture to that of KwakTube—a famous South Korean creator with over 2 million subscribers—and went into hiding.
Following this, prominent overseas cryptocurrency influencers, unaware of the full story, began taking screenshots of KwakTube's photo from Terence Kwok's profile. They shared it on social media with accusatory posts claiming, "This is the person behind the coin scam." Consequently, KwakTube was suddenly framed as the mastermind behind a global hacking scam.
Facing indiscriminate criticism from global Internet users due to this unexpected identity theft, KwakTube took to social media to clear his name. Expressing his frustration and bewilderment, he wrote, "I can't believe I'm getting my identity stolen for a coin scam in my lifetime. I don't make coins. Of all people, it had to be a Kwak."
[Photo=KwakTube Instagram]
(SBS Entertainment News | Kang Sun-ae)