Hackers Live Stream A Fake Apple Interview on YouTube, Attracting Over 70K Viewers to a Crypto Scam

The hackers attempted to lure people into a crypto scam using a 2018 video of the Apple CEO.

Hackers are not relenting in their quest to exploit unsuspecting cryptocurrency investors into giving up their funds. Since the 2017 crypto boom, several antics have been used to cart away people’s crypto assets, ranging from rug pulls to hacking and using the social media accounts of popular figures worldwide to defraud unsuspecting investors. 

In a recent development, bad actors were seen live streaming an old interview of Apple CEO on YouTube and tweaking the video to lure viewers to a cryptocurrency scam. 

Details of the Scam

The video used was originally posted in 2018 during a CNN video of Tim Cook, Apple CEO. However, the bad actors tweaked the video and embedded all sorts of crypto-related and Apple descriptions to make unsuspecting victims believe Apple was launching a crypto project. 

For instance, the title has several strange keywords, which read “Apple Event Live. CEO of Apple Tim Cook: Apple & Metaverse in 2022.” Apparently, the scammers chose those keywords to attract people’s attention to the crypto scam. 

Furthermore, the description also contained some Apple keywords with a link that, when opened, would take a potential victim to a shady-looking cryptocurrency site.

The video was also not spared. The CNN logo was covered with the text “Apple Crypto Event 2022.” Another text, “URGENT NEWS,” was added at the bottom of the video, while the malefactor also added the Bitcoin and Ethereum logo. 

Interestingly, the scammer chose to live stream the fake video when Cook had an interview with Vox Media’s Code conference, where he talked about the iPhone 14 launch. 

The idea behind the misleading stream was to trick people who knew Apple was having a big day but still didn’t know what the event was all about. 

Jay Peters, a journalist at The Verge, said he came across the video while watching the Apple iPhone 14 launch. At the time he first saw the video, it had 16,000 likes. However, the number of viewers spiked to over 70,000 later in the day. It is unknown if some of the viewers fell for the antics. 

After the video was reported several times, YouTube took it down to prevent more people from falling victim to scammers. 

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