Elon Musk has previously expressed support for cryptocurrencies publicly, but the billionaire was recently impersonated by cybercriminals who hacked an Australian broadcaster in an attempt to target gullible investors. Over the last few years, Musk has shaken up the crypto market via posts on X (formerly Twitter). Now, his popularity is being used by criminals to target crypto investors — especially those who take the billionaire’s market commentary seriously. Deepfake videos of Musk promoting scam tokens, fake airdrops, and false crypto schemes are reportedly spreading throughout web applications.
Elon Musk deepfake videos displayed via Australian broadcaster
Cybercriminals managed to hack the YouTube channel of The Seven Network (popularly known as Channel Seven) on Thursday following layoffs at the Australian broadcaster, according to a News.com.au report. After gaining control over the broadcaster’s account, the hackers displayed deepfake videos of Musk in which he appears to say that he is giving away crypto tokens.
In the doctored video, the Tesla chief can be heard vouching to return investors double of what they wire to a malicious address. As per the report, the livestream of this deepfake video garnered views from over 150,000 people on the compromised YouTube channel for Channel Seven.
Screenshots of the deepfake version of Musk promoting the fraudulent crypto scheme on the YouTube channel — renamed by the criminals to ‘Tesla Channel’ during the hack — have surfaced on social media. One of the screenshots also shows that a QR code was being displayed on the screen along with a tagline ‘Scan or regret’. YouTube is yet to publicly react to the development.
@elonmusk Live cryptoScam using your image on YouTube now.
Channel says” 7NEWS Australia “
It appears as Tesla channel after clicking on the video when it starts.
Notified YouTube but no “Scam” category to report in drop menu.
Good luck fixing this and getting it shut down. pic.twitter.com/M6pG47xS2M— Greg Watts (@MeggaWatti_) June 27, 2024
Earlier this month, when SpaceX conducted the launch of its Starship rocket, at least 35 deepfake videos of Musk were reportedly streamed on YouTube. In these videos, scammers displayed a fake video of Musk promoting a scam crypto scheme asking people to send crypto funds to a wallet address to get double in return.
100k+ people watching a scam SpaceX Starship Launch LIVE on YouTube right now using a convincing AI deepfake of Elon Musk on stage trying to push crypto during the launch. Why won’t @TeamYouTube do anything about this? YouTube just ignores all the reports & it’s ridiculous! :man-facepalming: pic.twitter.com/LxOt0H89Ms
— Barnacules Nerdgasm (@Barnacules) March 14, 2024
How Musk has reacted to previous deepfake videos
It’s been a while since Musk has reacted to these deepfake videos of him promoting crypto scams. Back in 2022, he responded after watching one of these fake videos exploiting his identity. “Yikes. Def not me,” the billionaire quipped in response to a now-deleted post.
Musk has not directly commented on deepfakes since that post, but often spoken about his intent to eliminate bot accounts spreading fake information around crypto and politics among other subjects on X (formerly Twitter). It is notable that the billionaire has not quite been able to do so as yet.
Earlier this month, Binance co-founder Yi He asked Musk to improve the X’s privacy and security measures after she found her identity being misused for promoting a fake crypto token on X.
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