Crypto scammers are using the recent assassination attempts against former US President Donald Trump to lure customers into a crypto doubling scheme, according to a Bitdefender study.
The new scam has the actors hijack YouTube channels to show convincing deep fakes and encourage victims to participate in crypto giveaways by scanning the QR code embedded within the video.
“Our researchers have spotted dozens of hijacked YouTube channels that, since July 16, have been serving deep fake live streams of Elon Musk, purporting he will reveal insights into the assassination attempt,” Bitdefender said in a blog post.
Some of the hijacked YouTube channels, according to the study, have been renamed as “Tesla” or “Donald Trump Jr.”
Stream-jacking with Musk’s deep fake
Scammers are stream-jacking YouTube channels to insert looped live stream videos showing deep-faked Elon Musk talking about the assassination and his affiliation to the Republican Party.
“Billionaire Elon Musk reacted to the incident (assassination attempt), stating Saturday evening that he ‘fully’ supports Donald Trump. Musk’s statement has added a new dimension to the unfolding events, as he also hinted at potential political endorsements in the upcoming election. #Tesla #Musk #Trump,” reads a description snippet from a hijacked channel as cited by Bitdefender.
Additionally, the fake Musk video invites potential victims to participate in a crypto giveaway that takes them to fraudulent websites that impersonate Tesla or other Musk-Trump association themes.
“Scanning the QR codes, which in some of the videos are positioned near a Donald Trump logo, direct users to fraudulent websites hosted on domains that resemble the name of the impersonated brand – in this case, Tesla – or domains that associate both Musk’s and Donald Trump’s name.” the blog added.
Scam has a massive reach
According to Bitdefender researchers, the scam has a huge impact radius as targeted channels are mostly popular.
“The potential reach of the scam is very troubling since one of the hijacked channels that began promoting the scams has 1.26 million subscribers,” the researchers said in the blog. “Other instances show a subscriber count of over 700,000 and in the lower ranges of 100,000.”
Moreover, fake claims about Musk’s political affiliation may have undesirable effects on the ongoing presidential campaign. While there’s no direct reference in any of the fake videos, some channel descriptions have taken it a step further. “Elon Musk plans to provide about $45 million a month to a new political committee supporting former US leader Donald Trump as part of the presidential campaign #Tesla #Musk #Trump,” one of the descriptions reads.
Bitdefender researchers have identified five malicious domains associated with this campaign and appropriated their anti-phishing and anti-fraud tools to detect and block them. Additionally, the Romanian cybersecurity watchdog has made a few recommendations to guard against such scams including scrutiny of QR codes with too-good-to-be-true crypto offers, checking YouTube channels for suspecting giveaways and telltale signs like missing or deleted videos and closed comment sections.
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