Elon Musk has previously publicly expressed his support for cryptocurrencies, but the billionaire was recently imitated by cybercriminals who hacked an Australian broadcaster in an attempt to target gullible investors. Over the past few years, Musk has shaken up the crypto market through posts on X (formerly Twitter). His popularity is now being used by criminals to target crypto investors — especially those who take the billionaire’s market commentary seriously. Deepfake videos of Musk promoting scam tokens, fake airdrops, and fake crypto schemes are reportedly being spread by web apps.
Elon Musk deepfake videos shown via Australian TV
Cybercriminals managed to hack The Seven Network’s (popularly known as Channel Seven) YouTube channel on Thursday following layoffs at the Australian broadcaster, according to a report by News.com.au. After taking control of the broadcaster’s account, the hackers showed deep fake videos of Musk appearing to say he was giving away crypto tokens.
In the fake video, the head of Tesla can be heard guaranteeing that investors will get back double what they send to the malicious address. According to the report, the livestream of this deepfake video garnered over 150,000 views on the compromised YouTube channel for Channel Seven.
Screenshots of a deepfake version of Musk promoting a fake crypto scheme on a YouTube channel — which the criminals renamed the ‘Tesla Channel’ during the hack – have surfaced on social media. One of the screenshots also shows that a QR code was displayed on the screen along with the slogan ‘Scan or Regret’. YouTube has yet to publicly react to the development.
@elonmusk Live cryptoScam using your image now on YouTube.
The channel says “7NEWS Australia”
It appears as a Tesla channel after clicking on the video when it starts.
Notified by YouTube, but there is no “Scam” category to report in the dropdown menu.
Good luck fixing this and shutting it down. pic.twitter.com/M6pG47xS2M— Greg Watts (@MeggaWatti_) June 27, 2024
Earlier this month, when SpaceX performed the launch of its Starship rocket, at least 35 deepfake videos of Musk were reportedly broadcast on YouTube. In those videos, the scammers showed a fake video of Musk promoting a fraudulent crypto scheme asking people to send crypto funds to a wallet address to get double in return.
Over 100k people are watching the SpaceX Starship Launch hoax LIVE on YouTube right now using a convincing AI deepfake of Elon Musk on stage trying to push crypto during the launch. Why not @TeamYouTube do something about this? YouTube just ignores all the reports and it’s ridiculous! :man-facepalming: pic.twitter.com/LxOt0H89Ms
— Barnacules Nerdgasm (@Barnacules) March 14, 2024
How Musk reacted to previous deepfake videos
It’s been a while since Musk reacted to these deepfake videos promoting crypto scams. Back in 2022, he responded after watching one of these fake videos exploiting his identity. “Ouch. Definitely not me,” the billionaire joked in response to the now-deleted post.
Musk has not commented directly on deepfakes since that announcement, but has spoken frequently about his intention to eliminate bot accounts that spread false information about crypto and politics, among other topics, on Xu (formerly Twitter). It is noticeable that the billionaire has not yet succeeded.
Earlier this month, Binance co-founder Yi He asked Musk to improve X’s privacy and security measures after she discovered her identity was being misused to promote a fake crypto token on X.
