During the highly anticipated Apple event on September 9, where the tech giant unveiled its iPhone 16 models, YouTube was inundated with livestreams that exploited deepfake technology to impersonate Apple CEO Tim Cook. These fake streams were part of a cryptocurrency scam aimed at defrauding viewers.
In these deceptive streams, an AI-generated version of Tim Cook could be seen urging viewers to send cryptocurrencies such as Bitcoin, Ether, Tether, or Dogecoin to a specified “contribution address,” promising to return double the amount deposited. “Once you complete your deposit, the system will automatically process it and send back double the amount of the cryptocurrency you deposited,” the fabricated Cook claimed. This type of scheme, known as a “double-your-money” scam, typically results in the perpetrators keeping the transferred funds, leaving contributors with nothing.
The scam streams cleverly coincided with Apple’s actual “Glowtime” event, adding a layer of authenticity to the fraud. One such stream was hosted on a YouTube channel misleadingly named “Apple US,” which even featured a legitimate verification tick to further deceive viewers. Shared videos and screenshots on X indicated that some of these fraudulent streams amassed hundreds of thousands of views, though it’s suspected that many were from bots designed to make the streams appear legitimate.
YouTube’s support team acknowledged the issue on the same day via an X post, encouraging users to report the scam through its official reporting tool. Subsequently, the fake videos were taken down, and the associated accounts were closed.
This incident highlights a growing trend where scammers utilize deepfake technology to create convincing replicas of high-profile figures to execute scams.
Earlier in June, a similar incident occurred when the Australian broadcaster Seven’s YouTube news channel was hijacked to display videos of a deepfake Elon Musk promoting cryptocurrency scams. These events underline the increasing boldness and sophistication of online fraudsters in exploiting digital platforms and advanced technologies to conduct scams.
