The now-deleted livestream directed viewers to deposit Bitcoin, Ethereum, and Dogecoin at a fictitious website.
The stream, which at one point had more than 30,000 viewers, ran for five hours over the weekend and utilized semi-pixelated videos of Elon Musk. In the video, there was a segment featuring Musk appearing to host a live stream during a Tesla event.
The video featured an AI-generated version of Elon Muskβs voice, encouraging viewers to visit a website and deposit their crypto for a giveaway. The stream encouraged donations in Bitcoin (BTC), Ethereum (ETH), and Dogecoin (DOGE). The repeated message promised to βautomatically return double the amount of the cryptocurrency you deposited.β
A deepfake live stream of Elon Musk promoting a crypto giveaway scam is currently live on YouTube with around 30,000 viewers. Itβs funny how YouTube isnβt doing anything about it.
The β@elon.teslastreamβ account posed as Tesla and had a verification badge next to its profile. Google removed both the video and the channel.
Musk Scams
This incident follows a long line of crypto scams that have utilized deep fakes of Elon Musk.
On April 8, there was a surge of fraudulent Space X giveaway scams on YouTube, disguised as live streams focused on the April 8 solar eclipse.
Also, on May 8, a month later, the Hong Kong Securities and Futures Commission (HKSFC) warned the public about a fake crypto exchange platform using AI-generated videos of Elon Musk to promote crypto trading services.
Over the last year, AI-generated videos have become an easy tool for crypto scammers. According to a recent Elliptic report, AI can speed up crypto scams, posing a substantial threat to the credibility of not only AI but the crypto industry as a whole.
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