Deepfake in the service of crypto scammers

Deepfake is a new goldmine for scammers

Rapid technological advances propel Web 3.0, but unethical actors don’t lag. Scammers now use deepfakes to steal money. This article will look at some deepfake scams and discuss how to protect your financial assets in the light of a new threat.

Deepfakes gain momentum

In addition to various phishing schemes, scammers actively use deepfakes to create videos with famous people. Such videos quickly go viral and deceive a large number of people. Deepfakes have become terrifyingly convincing. When used for an ill motive, deepfakes make unsuspecting victims even more vulnerable to elaborate phishing schemes, fake airdrops and giveaways, and scams.

Notable deepfake crypto scams 

In 2020, scammers used deepfake technology to impersonate Tron founder Justin Sun. They used a pre-recorded video to lure money from unsuspecting victims during live Skype calls.

In March 2022, impostors hacked a woman’s Instagram account and used deepfake video to promote their crypto scam. This was an ordinary woman from Australia. This shows that impostors will also make deepfakes of ordinary people because these scams are more believable to victims’ friends and families.

A few days ago, a malicious video of Elon Musk advertising a platform for trading crypto went viral on Twitter. In the video, Musk, a crypto fan himself, announced his new trading platform BitVex. Fake Musk urged viewers to deposit their existing cryptocurrecny to the platform and earn the fixed rate of 30% from the third month.
The quality of this deepfake is not the best, but it’s still decent enough for the video to go viral. It gained so much publicity that @elonmusk left a reply calling the deepfake, “Yikes. Def not me.” At the moment, it is unclear how many people have been deceived.

Yikes. Def not me.

— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) May 25, 2022

Deefakes with Elon Musk are popular because his support for the crypto project is widely recognized. In another deepfake, he promises to send back two BTC for every one BTC you send to his address. 

Even the best-made deepfakes are not that effective because they are often posted by random accounts. Most people don’t trust them. However, the real danger starts when scammers post deepfakes from hacked verified accounts. It could happen: we still remember how hackers accessed numerous high-profile Twitter accounts to spread their scam in 2020.

Protect yourself against tricky deepfakes

• Always check the credentials of the person who posted the video. Try to find the source of the original tweet or post.
• Pay extra attention to videos with Elon Musk. Seriously, they just love exploiting Elon Musk, Tesla, and SpaceX to spread phishing links. Double check the credibility of the video before jumping on the bandwagon.

CER.live

We recommend using trusted trading platforms. You can find a list of reliable certified exchanges at https://cer.live/. CER.live offers detailed security rankings for DeFi, crypto exchanges, tokens, wallets, chains, and platforms, making it the most powerful tool in your cybersecurity arsenal. With this service, scammers will not achieve their malicious goals no matter how believable their deepfakes are.