Crypto scams, hacks and exploits and how to avoid them: Crypto-Sec
Deepfake scams: Bitcoin conference AI drains $79K
As the Bitcoin 2024 conference was taking place on July 25-27, crypto users lost over $79,000 due to a deep-fake AI livestream of the conference. The fake livestream featured footage of Elon Musk giving a speech, but while Musk had been rumored to attend, he did not actually speak at the conference and obviously had no involvement with the video — like countless other Musk related scams online.
Michael Dunworth, co-founder of crypto payments service Wyre, reported the deep-fake scam through a post to X on July 26. “I’ve had people call me telling me Elon Musk is giving free Bitcoins away at Bitcoin ‘24,” he stated. “No wonder, they have a fake live stream with dubbed voice over, and 70k+ (fake) people watching the live stream.”
According to Dunworth’s post, the fake livestream video was posted to a channel called “Tesla,” which was named after Elon Musk’s car company but was not endorsed by it. The real livestream of the conference, on the other hand, was posted by Bitcoin Magazine’s official YouTube channel.
Bitcoin consulting firm The Bitcoin Way reported another version of the scam on July 27. This version was reportedly posted to a YouTube channel called KHORTEX.
The livestream reportedly featured an AI-generated video of Elon Musk telling viewers to send Bitcoin to a particular address, which it claimed would allow them to receive double back. A similar Elon Musk deep-fake scam circulated in May.
Blockchain data shows that some viewers did send crypto to the scam addresses. The Bitcoin network address associated with the scam received over 0.77 Bitcoin (BTC), worth approximately $53,000 based on the Bitcoin price at the time, from July 28-29. An additional 4.531 Ethereum (ETH) (worth approximately $26,000) was sent to the scammer’s Ethereum address and 4,136 Dogecoin (DOGE) (worth $537.34) was transferred to the Dogecoin address. In total, viewers of the…
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