A few moments before Apple’s Glowtime event on September 9, 2024, the official YouTube channel of the tech giant was breached. Thugs swarmed the site with fake videos of Tim Cook, Apple’s CEO endorsing a cryptocurrency giveaway con.
The fake live stream included Cook’s impersonation, who encouraged the viewers to send Bitcoin, Ethereum, Dogecoin, or Tether to the contribution address following which they will be doubled. In less than thirty minutes the stream had attracted over one million viewers which included bots thus boosting the credibility of the scam.
This scam stream of activity asserted that the giveaway would bring faster adoption of cryptos into circulation, therefore advancing the narrative of building a more equitable environment.
Similarly, such tricks were observed, and the audiences were asked to use their mobile phones to scan the QR code intending to be involved in the so-called ‘double-your-money’ scam.
This particular scam happened at the time when Apple was preparing an iPhone 16 release which generated a lot of interest. It was also as fast to remove the fake streams and block the users who created them on YouTube.
Nevertheless, the case proves that current crypto scams are much more elaborate than previously imagined and often utilize synthetic media such as deepfakes of well-known personalities including Tim Cook and Elon Musk.
Also, fraudsters took advantage of the release of the new product and optimized the work with Dogecoin (DOGE) promotion. Evidently, people were tricked into sending DOGE owing to the giveaway that is aimed at making the world a fair place.
All of them demonstrate that artificial intelligence and, in particular, social engineering are actively used in fraud. The 2024 “Global Risks Report” by the World Economic Forum has also predicted an increase in the threats posed by the deployment of Artificial Intelligence and hence this case is a wake-up call to the ever-present dangers that users encounter in cyberspace.
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