During the highly anticipated release of Apple's iPhone 16 on September 9, scammers flooded YouTube with live streams that featured AI-generated versions of Apple CEO Tim Cook.
These streams were used to promote crypto scams, deceiving viewers into thinking they could double their money by sending crypto to a fraudulent address.
One of the scam streams, shared on X (formerly known as Twitter), featured deepfakes of Tim Cook encouraging viewers to send Tether (USDT), Bitcoin (BTC), and Ether (ETH) to a so-called "contribution address."
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The fake Cook assured viewers that Apple would send back double the amount of cryptocurrency they deposited. However, in reality, the scammers stole the funds.
One particularly convincing fake stream was hosted on a YouTube channel that appeared to be affiliated with Apple and had a verification checkmark, making it more believable to viewers.
Screenshots and videos shared on X revealed that some of these scam streams amassed hundreds of thousands of views. However, it's suspected that many of these views were generated by bots.
YouTube's support team quickly acknowledged the issue, posting on X to urge users to report any fraudulent videos. As of now, the fake live streams have been removed from YouTube, and the accounts associated with these scams have been shut down.
These streams took place during Apple's official "Glowtime" event that was live-streamed on YouTube, where the company revealed its latest iPhone 16 models.
This incident highlights the increasing use of deepfake technology by scammers, who are now targeting high-profile figures and events to make their schemes more convincing.
This is not the first time such scams have surfaced; back in June, deepfake videos of Elon Musk promoting a similar crypto scheme appeared on YouTube around the time of SpaceX's Starship rocket launch.
