Scammers are taking advantage of Metallica's big announcement last week and now the metal legends have issued a new statement warning fans about fake streams, crpytocurrency scams and more.

On some days, it feels like there are more bots and scammers on the internet than there are human beings, even with an estimate of over five billion people having access to the world wide web. It's sadly become a part of every day life, whether you're getting nefarious texts about your Netflix account expiring (requiring input of sensitive credit card data), phony robo calls about your car's limited warranty or social media accounts impersonating celebrities and direct messaging unsuspecting fans asking for digital money transfers (remember the poor woman who thought Nikki Sixx and Brett Michaels were fighting over her?).

Not even Metallica are impervious to the rotten desires of internet scammers.

After the band announced their 72 Seasons album and corresponding world tour last week, they become one of the biggest trending topics on the internet, meaning there was a lot of opportunity for wrongdoers to seize the moment. Unofficial livestreams and YouTube channels were launched as well as "Metallica Crypto" giveaways as a way of deceiving fans and potentially inflicting financial harm upon them.

In a statement that blanketed the band's social media profiles, they cautioned fans about "the ugly side of social media" and urged everyone to "always look for official verification before believing something wild and crazy to be true."

Metallica also thanked their fans for being so vigilant and for reporting these sham accounts. Additionally, they listed all of their official social media handles to further point fans in the right direction.

In the wake of last week’s exciting news of our new song, new album, and new tour, unfortunately the ugly side of social media made an appearance. Many of you have let us know about YouTube channels and live streams, as well as websites, claiming to offer Metallica Crypto giveaways in conjunction with last week’s announcement.
Let’s be as clear as possible. These are scams. They’re being streamed on fake YouTube channels posing to be ours and all pointing to websites that we do not run. Please remember — all of our official social media channels are verified. Always look for official verification before believing something wild and crazy to be true. We thank all of you who have been vigilant in reporting these live streams to YouTube and to us… please don’t let up!
As a reminder, these are the official Metallica channels:
Website: metallica.com, livemetallica.com
Instagram: @metallica
YouTube: @metallica
Facebook: @metallica
TikTok: @metallica
Twitter: @metallica
Be familiar with the symbols that indicate an official channel and report anything that is a scam!

Metallica's followup to 2016's Hardwired... To Self-Destruct will be released on April 14 next year and you can pre-order your copy here. See their upcoming tour dates at this location and get tickets here.

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