Hong Kong Issues Alert on Crypto Scams Using Elon Musk Deepfakes

• Deepfake Elon Musk videos have been part of a scam scheme, as alerted by Hong Kong officials.
• An entity claiming to offer an AI crypto trading platform is involved in this fraudulent act.
• Impersonation of Elon Musk using deepfake technology has a history of being used in scams.

Elon Musk has no association with a dubious cryptocurrency site that someone might be promoting to you on Facebook.

Last week, the Hong Kong Securities and Futures Commission cautioned the public about deceptive deepfake video scams. A fraudulent group using the names Quantum AI or AI Quantum has manipulated deepfake clips of Elon Musk in a ploy to swindle the unsuspecting public, wrongly asserting his endorsement of their AI software.

This fake Quantum AI group should not be mistaken for the legitimate Quantum AI Lab (QuAIL) at NASA, dedicated to quantum computing research.

As AI technology becomes more sophisticated, these deepfake scams are becoming increasingly common, fooling victims into giving away their money.

Deepfake technology employs advanced artificial intelligence to mimic the likeness and voice in video or audio recordings. Scammers orchestrate video calls using deepfake software that alters their appearance to resemble that of the person the victim believes they are interacting with.

The infamous Nigerian scam collective known as The Yahoo Boys utilizes deepfake technology to execute romance scams.

The dubious Hong Kong group professed to use AI for crypto trading, but authorities expressed suspicions of it being a cover for scamming activities involving virtual assets. The group operated via three websites and a couple of Facebook pages.

By utilizing deepfake videos of Musk, perpetrators misled victims into thinking he was the brain behind the technology, thereby fabricating credibility for their sham operation. They even created a phony “news” site to spread disinformation about their service, as per authorities.

Hong Kong police have dismantled the group’s websites and social channels, reports Crypto News. Communication attempts with the Hong Kong Police Force for a statement remained unanswered by BI.

This incident isn’t the first instance of Musk impersonation; in a previous scam, a South Korean woman was conned out of $50,000 by persons pretending to be Musk via Instagram communications and a video call.

“Musk even declared ‘I love you, you know that?’ over a video call,” the defrauded woman recounted to 60 Minutes about her interaction with the deepfake.