Just before Apple’s big Glowtime event on September 9, 2024, the company’s official YouTube channel was hacked. Scammers took over the site and flooded it with fake videos featuring an impersonator of Apple’s CEO, Tim Cook, promoting a phony cryptocurrency giveaway.
The fraudulent live stream showed someone pretending to be Cook, urging viewers to send Bitcoin, Ethereum, Dogecoin, or Tether to a provided address, promising that their contributions would be doubled. Within 30 minutes, the stream attracted over a million viewers, including many bots, which made the scam appear more convincing.
Deceiving the Public
The scam claimed that the giveaway would speed up cryptocurrency adoption and create a fairer financial system. Viewers were also encouraged to scan a QR code on their phones to join the supposed ‘double-your-money’ scheme.
This scam hit just as Apple was gearing up for the iPhone 16 release, which was already creating a lot of excitement. Apple acted quickly, removing the fake streams and blocking the scammers on YouTube.
This incident shows how sophisticated crypto scams have become. Scammers are now using deepfake technology to impersonate well-known figures like Tim Cook and Elon Musk to trick people. They also took advantage of the iPhone release to promote Dogecoin (DOGE), fooling people into sending DOGE under the false promise of a giveaway aimed at making the world fairer.
The use of artificial intelligence and social engineering in these scams is a growing concern. The 2024 “Global Risks Report” by the World Economic Forum warns that threats from AI are increasing. This case is a clear reminder of the dangers that users face online.
Read Also: Unstoppable Domains Targeted in Phishing Hoax; Ripple CTO Issues Scam Alert
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