Crypto scammers produce a deepfake video

Cryptocurrency scammers create a deepfake video of Elon Musk’s TED lecture to prey on unwary social media users. Elon Musk, CEO of Tesla, has distanced himself from yet another phoney movie pushing a cryptocurrency hoax.

The video in issue, uploaded initially on Twitter, was a deepfake of Musk reportedly touting a cryptocurrency platform with 30 per cent returns on crypto deposits. Scammers used actual footage from a TED Talk featuring Musk and curator Chris Anderson at this year’s TED conference in Vancouver.

The tweet and video piqued Musk’s interest, who has been increasingly active since his decision to acquire the social media network for an estimated $44 billion. Musk’s global reputation as a technology pioneer has made him a popular target for scammers attempting to prey on unsuspecting social media users and investors. Scams claiming outsized returns on investment pose a risk to less-tech-savvy customers. The United States Federal Trade Commission (FTC) released a study estimating that over $80 million in cryptocurrency was taken from unsuspecting victims over six months.

Given Musk’s interest in bitcoin and his pro-Dogecoin stance, fake YouTube live streams became a weapon of choice. Musk’s now-famous appearance on the American television show Saturday Night Live proved to be a cash cow for scammers. The FTC focused on fake addresses that received approximately 9.7 million Dogecoin worth $5 million in May last year. Creators employ artificial intelligence and computer-generated images, video, and audio to influence, confuse, or swindle consumers with material that is frequently so lifelike that it is difficult to distinguish reality from fiction. Blockchain technology has been promoted as a possible technique for combating deepfake and fake news.

Across 9,500 people from all over the world were polled for Block’s 2022 Bitcoin research, which revealed that more optimistic people had a higher self-reported knowledge level of the cryptocurrency.

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