A recent YouTube Live broadcast, now taken down, used a deepfake of Elon Musk to promote a cryptocurrency scam.The five-hour stream, disguised as a Tesla event, featured an AI-generated Musk urging viewers to deposit cryptocurrency on a dubious website with the promise of doubling their investment.
The scam broadcast attracted over 30,000 viewers at its peak, aided by a seemingly hacked Official Artist Channel verification badge. The account, posing as Tesla, was swiftly removed by Google after being contacted by Engadget.
This incident is part of a rising trend of Elon Musk deepfake scams, often using accounts impersonating his companies.Similar scams have surfaced in recent months, capitalizing on events like the SpaceX Starship launch and even the recent eclipse. Numerous reports on Reddit also document a surge in fake Musk livestreams.
Such scams have been plaguing Musk’s followers on social media for years, extending to celebrities in general. In a recent incident, rapper 50 Cent’s accounts were compromised to orchestrate a cryptocurrency pump-and-dump scheme.
