What just happened? When it comes to scams that use faked footage of celebrities, few are as popular as Elon Musk. A deepfake of the billionaire was used in a YouTube Live broadcast, telling viewers to deposit their crypto at a website to receive double the amount back.
The five-hour broadcast was designed to look like a livestream of a Tesla event, though the title should have suggested something wasn't right: "Tesla's [sic] unveils a masterpiece: The Tesla that will change the car industry forever."
As reported by Engadget, the stream featured an AI-generated version of Musk's voice instructing viewers to deposit their Bitcoin, Ethereum or Dogecoin at a certain website to automatically receive double the amount they deposited straight back.
Over 30,000 concurrent viewers had tuned into the stream at one point – though a percentage were presumably bots – pushing it to the top of YouTube's Live Now recommendations.
The account, @elon.teslastream, had an Official Artist Channel verification badge, suggesting this was an account hack. Google removed the video and the channel after it was informed of the stream.
While he's a controversial figure, Musk has a devoted following, which likely explains why he's so popular when it comes to these sorts of scams. He's also been criticized for the influence he has over crypto prices, able to raise or crash a digital currency using a single post on X.
Woow! A verified @YouTube account is impersonating @SpaceX's account and airing a livestream about the solar eclipse. The stream shows a deepfake of Elon Musk asking users to scan a QR code on the screen and deposit cryptocurrencies to have them doubled. 95K users are watching… pic.twitter.com/A0B5XiAfUg
– Mysk ð¨ð¦ð©ðª (@mysk_co) April 8, 2024
Fake Musk livestreams were especially popular during the recent SpaceX launch, with over 35 YouTube channels playing them. Scammers also used the eclipse to push these faked videos, and they were pasted all over the Linus Tech Tips channels after it was hacked earlier last year. In all the cases, the goal was to get viewers to deposit their crypto, usually with the promise of doubling it.
Musk wasn't the only person that criminals were using in their crypto scams over the weekend. Rapper 50 Cent's X account and website were hacked to promote a fake coin called $GUNIT. 50 Cent said on Instagram that the hackers made $3 million in 30 minutes via the pump-and-dump scam, highlighting why they're so popular.