More than 350,000 people watched a video of Apple CEO Tim Cook promoting a cryptocurrency scam, only to realize later that it was a deepfake generated using artificial intelligence. On September 9, during Apple’s highly anticipated “Glowtime” event, scammers seized the opportunity to run multiple live streams promoting a double-your-cryptocurrency scheme.

🚨Breaking 🚨
Apple US YouTube channel hacked? There is a fake Ai video of Tim Cook streaming on it asking for bitcoin. 😱
#AppleEvent
pic.twitter.com/b2DOyhxBLL
— Abhishek Bhatnagar (@abhishek)
September 9, 2024

One of the streams, now deleted, attracted over 355,000 viewers. An AI-altered interview with Tim Cook misled people into sending cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin and Ethereum to a wallet address controlled by the scammers.

During the live stream, an AI-generated voice mimicking Cook described the fraudulent scheme as an “ideal opportunity for beginners to participate and familiarize themselves with the world of cryptocurrencies.”

Another live stream was broadcast on a YouTube account with a verification checkmark named Apple US, impersonating the tech giant’s official channel. Other streams originated from accounts unrelated to tech.

All videos featured a QR code that redirected users to a malicious website designed to deceive users. At the time of writing, one scam website was still live, showcasing wallet addresses for various cryptocurrencies like BTC, ETH, DOGE, and USDT.

Fake website created by crypto scammers | Source: crypto.news

To enhance credibility, the website displayed a fake transaction history, automatically updated to make it appear as though people were transferring their funds.

Fake transaction history designed to mislead users | Source: crypto.news

As several users reported the scam live streams, YouTube support acknowledged the incident and urged users to report the videos using YouTube’s reporting tool. The videos have since been removed from the platform.

YouTube has been a frequent target for deepfake scammers. Previously, Tesla and SpaceX CEO Elon Musk was impersonated during the April 8 solar eclipse, with fraudsters pushing a similar scam across multiple rebranded YouTube channels.

Although YouTube has yet to officially comment on the platform’s misuse, it faced legal action in 2020 when Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak and 17 other victims sued YouTube, demanding the removal of scams that impersonated them to promote fake Bitcoin giveaways.

According to a June 2024 report from Bitget, deepfake scams surged 245% this year, resulting in approximately $80 billion in losses. This alarming trend has prompted regulators to propose new legislation requiring AI providers to include origin information in all AI-generated content to enhance transparency and accountability.

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