A YouTube Live broadcast that lasted five hours today used a deep of Elon Musk to promote a cryptocurrency scam, marking the latest in a series of similar fraudulent schemes. The now-deleted video showed an AI-generated Musk appearing to broadcast live from a Tesla event. Deepfake Musk, with an AI-generated voice, directed viewers to visit a website and deposit bitcoinEthereum, or Dogecoin to enter a giveaway, promising to โautomatically return double the amount of cryptocurrency you deposited.โ
The stream attracted more than 30,000 viewers at its peak, although these numbers may have been inflated by bots, pushing it to the top of YouTube's Live Now recommendations. The fraudulent account, @elon.teslastream, had the Official Artist Channel verification badge, suggesting a possible hack of the account. After Engadget contacted Google, both the video and the channel were removed. More updates are expected from Google.
Scammers have recently increased the number of deepfake scams starring Elon Musk, with scammers frequently using accounts impersonating Musk's companies. This particular stream was titled "Tesla's [sic] reveals a masterpiece: The Tesla that will change the automotive industry forever." In early June, Cointelegraph reported on similar scams involving 35 accounts impersonating SpaceX surrounding the Starship launch. In April, scammers They exploited the eclipse hype using the same tactic, as reported by Mashable.
Cryptocurrency scams targeting Musk's followers on social media have been an ongoing problem, along with scams involving other celebrities. Recently, 50 Cent's accounts were hacked to carry out a pump and dump scheme. The persistence and evolution of these scams underscore the challenges of protecting users from sophisticated online frauds, particularly those that leverage artificial intelligence and deepfake technology.
