Published On: Mon, 24 Jun 2024 23:55:22 GMT

Elon Musk Deep Fakes scam crypto users

Jun 24, 2024, 11:55 PM UTC

Author: Sahil Thakur

A recently deleted livestream deceived viewers into depositing Bitcoin, Ethereum, and Dogecoin on a fake website. The five-hour stream, which had more than 30,000 viewers at its peak, featured semi-pixelated videos of Elon Musk. In one segment, Musk appeared to be hosting a live event for Tesla.

AI-Generated Content: The livestream used an AI-generated version of Musk’s voice to urge viewers to visit a website and deposit their cryptocurrency for a supposed giveaway. The message promised to return double the amount of cryptocurrency deposited, encouraging donations in Bitcoin (BTC), Ethereum (ETH), and Dogecoin (DOGE).

Impersonation and Verification: The account, named “@elon.teslastream,” posed as an official Tesla account and even had a verification badge. This added a layer of credibility to the scam, though Google eventually removed both the video and the channel.

This incident is part of a series of scams exploiting deepfakes of Elon Musk. On April 8, fraudulent SpaceX giveaway scams appeared on YouTube, disguised as livestreams during the solar eclipse. Similarly, on May 8, the Hong Kong Securities and Futures Commission (HKSFC) warned about a fake crypto exchange platform using AI-generated Musk videos to promote their services. AI-generated videos have increasingly become a tool for crypto scammers, significantly threatening the credibility of AI and the crypto industry.

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