YouTube was flooded with livestreams featuring deepfakes of Apple CEO Tim Cook that shilled crypto scams amid the tech giant’s own livestream unveiling its latest generation of iPhones.

In one of the Sept. 9 scam streams shared to X, an artificial intelligence faked Cook asked viewers to send Bitcoin ( BTC ), Ether ( ETH ), Tether ( USDT ) or Dogecoin ( DOGE ) to a “contribution address,” claiming Apple would send them double the amount back.

“Once you complete your deposit, the system will automatically process it and send back double the amount of the cryptocurrency you deposited,” the AI-fake Cook urged.

The videos are a common “double-your-money” scam that promises to send back double the amount of any crypto sent to an address, but in reality, the fraudsters keep the funds.

AI is getting WAY too good

355k people watching a fake “apple” account on @youtube that’s promoting a massive crypto scam lol

The reason there are so many viewers is because the keynote today at 12pm cst @YouTubeCreators pic.twitter.com/O2ufpxdKnF

— BearPig 🧸🐷 (@BearPigCentral) September 9, 2024

One scam stream was featured on a YouTube channel that was made to appear as “Apple US,” complete with a legitimate verification tick.

Videos and screenshots shared to X show some bogus streams collected hundreds of thousands of views, but it’s likely many of these were bots aiming to give the stream legitimacy.

🚨Breaking 🚨

Apple US YouTube channel hacked? There is a fake Ai video of TimCook streaming on it asking for bitcoin. 😱 #AppleEvent pic.twitter.com/b2DOyhxBLL

— Abhishek Bhatnagar (@abhishek) September 9, 2024

YouTube’s support team acknowledged the scam in a Sept. 9 X post , urging users to report the video in the official reporting tool. 

The sham videos are no longer available , and the associated accounts are now closed.

Source: TeamYouTube

YouTube did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the livestreams.

Deepfake scammer’s becoming increasingly bold

A growing number of high-profile individuals and events are becoming the targets of scammers who use deepfake technology to dupe users.

In June, major Australian broadcaster Seven had its YouTube news channel hijacked by crypto scammers who posted videos of a deep fake Elon Musk talking about crypto.

Related: New bill suggests thwarting AI copycats, deepfakes with watermarks

In the same month, YouTube was flooded with deepfake versions of Musk around the same time as the latest launch of SpaceX’s Starship rocket, asking users to deposit crypto into a fraudulent double-your-money scheme.

Concerns about AI-generated content have increased exponentially in the last few years.

The World Economic Forum highlighted all the possible adverse outcomes of AI technologies in the 2024 edition of its “Global Risks Report.”

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