Another scam involving cryptocurrency that features Elon Musk’s likeness has been reported. But this one is slightly different. Video of Elon Musk’s deepfake promising big returns on investments in a scammy cryptocurrency scheme went viral.
The video shows Musk, a fake Musk, talking about a new investment project that will allow people to earn “30% dividends every single day for the rest their lives.”
An deepfake, which is increasingly popular in video production by artificial intelligence, creates images that depict false events. The deepfake makes it appear that the rich man is speaking something he’s not. BitVex, an imposter trading platform, was responsible for the scam.
The video is not convincing as Musk’s voice is robotic, making it difficult to understand what he is saying. On Twitter, Tesla CEO and SpaceX founder, Musk, quickly stated that the video was not real. “Yikes. He tweeted, “Def not me.”
Elon Musk's deep fake video promoting a new cryptocurrency scam going viral. The video claims that the trading platform is owned by Elon Musk, and offers 30% returns on crypto deposits. @elonmusk pic.twitter.com/iJeUvHYc5p
— DogeDesigner (@cb_doge) May 24, 2022
Dogecoin’s co-founder, Billy Markus, also spoke out about the terrible deepfake. He commented, “Someone foolish enough to invest in that should lose their money, while at the same the scammers deserve their lives in prison.”
He said, “Like literally any person watching that and believing it’s true would lose their cash to anything.”
Dogecoin, the 11th largest cryptocurrency, has a market capital of $11 million and is something Elon Musk frequently mentions on Twitter. Musk spent a lot of 2020 and 2021 pumping this coin, which was initially invented as a joke to drive up its price.
Critics claim that the original “meme” coin, the crypto asset, doesn’t have any real utility. However, developers are working to make it more useful for payments. Mark Cuban is another billionaire who has been advocating for Dogecoin’s use as a method of payment for more than a year. The Dallas Mavericks NBA team began accepting DOGE to purchase merchandise or tickets in March 2021.
Scams in the crypto world are ubiquitous–especially ones on Twitter promising huge returns. A phishing scam used verified accounts to hack more than $1 million in a fake Airdrop of ApeCoin. This native token is part of the Bored Ape Yacht Club NFT collection.
In 2020, scammers hacked high profile tweeters’ accounts (including Musk’s) to promote a Bitcoin scam.
