Watan-The concept of fraud through cryptocurrency has once again dominated the scene of online scams, this time associated with the name of American billionaire Elon Musk.
During the past hours, social media users have circulated a video recording, claiming to be a new offer from Elon Musk, alleging that the owner of platform “X” pledged to provide ten thousand dollars to anyone who opens an account on his digital currency website.
Musk has been promoting the cryptocurrency “Dogecoin” for years, regularly tweeting about the unique symbol that was created as a joke in 2013.
Fake Voice
According to compiled clips from the English comedian program “Last Week Tonight” by John Oliver, a voice resembling Elon Musk’s was heard offering the amount to encourage people to trade the currency, promising that anyone who opens an account on a specialized website will immediately receive ten thousand dollars.
The video, crafted using deepfake technology and disseminated on TikTok, uses deepfake, a technology that replaces a person’s face with another targeted face, or substitutes one person’s voice with another’s.
However, it was quickly exposed and several copies of the video were removed from TikTok after user reports.
Deepfakes are created using computer programs through artificial intelligence.
This technique attempts to merge a number of images and video clips of a certain personality to produce a new video clip – using machine learning – which may initially appear real but is actually fake.
@adelecryp 🔥vefonix com | delux🔥 #cryptonews #cryptok #xrp #bitcoin #crypto2023 #thanksgiving ♬ Friday Night Lights – ROKKA
Victims of Fraud
Some cryptocurrency-related fraud operations target individuals who already possess cryptocurrencies. Scammers exploit newcomers’ lack of knowledge in cryptocurrency, as well as the absence of cryptocurrency-related laws, to deceive them into sending money.
Recently, users lost over $700,000 after the X account of Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin was hacked.
Through Buterin’s account, scammers posted a link promising free non-fungible tokens (NFTs). Subsequently, victims who clicked on the link lost their own NFT tokens.
While hackers typically use text messages and X (Twitter) tweets to target victims, widespread access to artificial intelligence is changing their methods, with the creation of deepfake videos featuring famous personalities like Elon Musk, CZ, and others.