Elon Musk is not the only victim in this latest AI-generated deepfake scam that is making the rounds on YouTube.

A crypto scam purporting to be spread by Elon Musk himself is targeting gullible investors by promising them free crypt tokens as part of a giveaway. The video sends viewers to a website that looks suspicious and that could steal their private information instead of giving them the promised cryptocurrency coins.

The video has already been taken down, but it was able to stream for five hours earlier this week and it used a clip that was taken from an event held by Tesla. In the video, a deep fake version of Elon Musk, using a soundalike AI voice generation program, asked viewers to deposit cryptocurrency like Dogecoin, Ethereum, and Bitcoin into the website. The giveaway would then purportedly double that cryptocurrency deposit and send it back to the users.

The process was supposed to be automatic, with no further input from the viewers. The video racked up more than 30,000 views before it was taken down, and it managed to find its way onto the Live Now recommendations near the top of the list.

The Scam Warning

Over on X, the crypto community came together to warn people about putting money into the scam, and they pointed out the problems with this video and its supposed giveaway. Users on X wrote about the use of deepfake technology and how it was being used to deceive viewers.

It is very easy to manipulate people using deepfake technology, which can look incredibly real and mimic the sounds, actions, and likenesses of actual people, convincing viewers that what they are seeing is the real deal.

This scam is just the latest line of alarming deep fake videos that are not always caught right away and that make incredible claims. We have seen recent deepfake videos claiming to be from Elon Musk, YouTube star Mr. Beast, BBC presenters, and more. By the time the videos are caught and taken down, they have already done damage. That damage is estimated to be in the trillions of dollars this year according to some cybersecurity analysts, accounting for more than the total GDP of Japan.