Tesla CEO, Elon Musk has had a video of him manipulated to promote a scam.
- The video started circulating on Twitter of Elon Musk promoting BitVex, a cryptocurrency trading platform boasting over 30% returns.
- The video was originally taken from Musk’s TED Talk with Chris Anderson in April 2022. The deepfaked Musk states “Today we are launching an investment project that is working right now if you see this video. Absolutely everyone can earn everything, it’s very simple.” Musk was quick to respond, “Yikes. Def not me.”
- The website, which is now taken down, listed Elon Musk as the “CEO of Tesla Motors & BitVex”. Along with Musk, the CEO of Binance, Changpeng “CZ” Zhao, and CEO of Ark Invest, Cathie Wood were also added as investors and believers of the project.
- Deepfakes prey on the new investors, as seeing a high profile individual promoting something builds instant trust where they feel no need to look into the company.
- Scams are a growing problem with the growth of cryptocurrencies. Within the last financial year, Kenyans lost over $120M to crypto scams alone.