Deepfake Tim Cook promotes crypto scam during Apple event

More than 350,000 people watched a video of Apple CEO Tim Cook promoting a cryptocurrency scam, only to realize later that it was a deepfake generated using artificial intelligence.

Sep. 9 was a big day for tech giant Apple, as millions of people across the globe waited for the “Glowtime” event that would introduce the new iPhone. Scammers used this opportunity to run multiple live streams that promoted the typical double-your cryptocurrency scam.

Now deleted, one of the streams garnered over 355,000 people at one point where an AI-altered old Tim Cook interview was used to mislead people to send various cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin (BTC) and Ethereum (ETH) to a wallet address controlled by the scammers. 

During the live stream, an AI-generated voice mimicking Cook described the fradulent scheme as an “ideal opportunity for beginners to participate and familiarize themselves with the world of cryptocurrencies.”

Another live stream was broadcast on a YouTube account with the verification checkmark and was named Apple US, to impersonate the tech titan’s official channel. Meanwhile, some other streams were live from accounts that were completely unrelated to anything tech.

All of the videos featured a QR code which when scanned would redirect users to a malicious website designed to trick users. At the time of writing one of the scam websites was still live and the home page featured several wallet addresses for various cryptocurrencies like BTC, ETH, DOGE, and USDT.

To make it more convincing, the website also featured a fake transaction history which was automatically updated to make it look like people were actually transferring their funds.

As several users started reporting the scam live streams, YouTube support acknowledged the incident and urged users to report the videos using YouTube’s reporting tool. The videos have since been removed from the platform.

Scammers continue to misuse YouTube

YouTube has been a hunting ground for deepfake scammers as previously seen on multiple occasions. Tesla and SpaceX CEO Elon Musk was impersonated during the April 8 solar eclipse as fraudsters pushed a similar scam across multiple YouTube channels rebranded to look like SpaceX.

YouTube has yet to comment officially on the platform’s misuse, but the platform faced legal action back in 2020 when Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak, along with 17 other victims, sued YouTube, demanding the removal of scams that impersonated them to promote fake Bitcoin giveaways.

According to a June 2024 report from Bitget, deepfake scams surged 245% this year, and have led to roughly $80 billion in losses. This alarming trend has spurred regulators to act, with a new bill proposing that AI providers, like OpenAI, require users to include origin information in all AI-generated content to enhance transparency and accountability.