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Deepfakes of Apple CEO Tim Cook shilled crypto schemes within the tech behemoth’s own livestream launch of their newest generation of iPhones saturated YouTube.
Claiming Apple would give twice the amount back, an artificial intelligence created by Cook requested viewers in one of the Sept. 9 scam videos posted on X to contribute Bitcoin, Ether, Tether, or Dogecoin to a “contribution address.”
The AI-generated Cook advised: “Once you complete your deposit, the system will automatically process it and send back double the amount of the cryptocurrency you deposited.”
Promising to send back double the amount of any cryptocurrency provided to an address, the videos are a typical “double your money” hoax whereby the crooks keep the money instead of promised.
Apple’s Sept. 9 “Glowtime” event, which it aired on YouTube and revealed its new iPhone 16 models, coincided with the fraud livestreams. One fraud feed appeared on a YouTube channel under the name “Apple US,” replete with a real verification tick.
Shared to X, videos and pictures indicate several fake streams gathered hundreds of thousands of viewers; most of these were probably bots trying to give the stream credibility.
In a Sept. 9 X post, YouTube’s support crew admitted the fraud and urged viewers to use the official complaint method to document the video. The bogus videos are no more accessible, and the related accounts have closed. Increasingly well-known people and events are the focus of fraudsters using deepfake technology to fool consumers.
Major Australian network Seven’s YouTube news feed was hacked in June by crypto fraudsters uploading footage of a deep fake Elon Musk discussing cryptocurrencies.
Around the same time as SpaceX’s Starship Rocket’s newest launch, YouTube was inundated with deepfake versions of Musk soliciting fans to fund a bogus double-your-money scheme. Issues with AI-generated content have grown significantly within the past few years. In the 2024 edition of its “Global Risks Report,” the World Economic Forum underlined every potential negative result of artificial intelligence technologies.