Elon Musk deep fakes scammed crypto users on YouTube over the weekend

Deleted Livestream Promoted Crypto Scam

On June 23, 2024, a now-deleted livestream featuring Elon Musk's likeness aired on YouTube, directing viewers to a fraudulent website and soliciting Bitcoin, Ethereum, and Dogecoin deposits.

The stream, which garnered over 30,000 viewers, employed semi-pixelated videos of Elon Musk and an AI-generated voice promising to "automatically return double the amount of cryptocurrency you deposited." The "elontestastream" account was verified as Tesla but has since been removed by Google.

Elon Musk Scams

This incident joins a pattern of crypto scams using deepfakes of Musk's image and voice. In April 2024, fraudulent "Space X giveaway" scams appeared on YouTube during the solar eclipse. In May, the Hong Kong Securities and Futures Commission warned of a fake crypto exchange employing Musk's AI-generated videos.

According to an Elliptic report, AI has become a tool for crypto scammers, posing threats to the credibility of both AI and the crypto industry.