A five-hour YouTube Live stream today used an Elon Musk deepfake to fuel a cryptocurrency scam, in the latest in a series of similar fake streams. The video, which has since been removed, showed a clip of Musk that was meant to resemble a livestream of a Tesla event, with an ai-generated version of his voice directing viewers to visit a website and They will deposit their bitcoins, ethereum. or Dogecoin to be able to participate in a giveaway. The message, which played on a loop, promised that the system would “automatically return double the amount of cryptocurrency you deposited.”
More than 30,000 viewers tuned in to the stream at one point (although we can't rule out the possibility that these numbers were inflated by bots), propelling it to the top of YouTube's Live Now recommendations. The account impersonating Tesla, @elon.teslastream, had the Official Artist Channel verification badge, so it is possible that we are looking at an account hack. Both the video and the channel were removed after Engadget contacted Google. We will update this article if we receive more information.
These Elon Musk deepfake scams appear to have increased in recent months, in each case using an account impersonating one of Musk's companies. This was titled “Tesla (sic) presents a masterpiece: The Tesla that will change the automotive industry forever.” Begining of June, crypto-scams” rel=”nofollow noopener” target=”_blank” data-ylk=”slk:Cointelegraph;elm:context_link;elmt:doNotAffiliate;cpos:1;pos:1;itc:0;sec:content-canvas”>Cointelegraph reported similar scams carried out by 35 accounts impersonating SpaceX at the time of Starship's launch. In April, scammers attempted to add to the eclipse hype using the same tactic, such as crypto-scam” rel=”nofollow noopener” target=”_blank” data-ylk=”slk:Mashable;elm:context_link;elmt:doNotAffiliate;cpos:2;pos:1;itc:0;sec:content-canvas”>Mashable reported at the time. And there have been numerous reports of fake Musk live streams Published in reddit recently.
Cryptocurrency scams targeting Musk's followers on social media have been a problem for years, as have those involving celebrities in general. This same Friday, 50 Cent was the victim of a hack that used his accounts to carry out a pump and dump scheme.