How scammers use deepfakes of celebs to steal millions from fans

In one example, scammers shared fake photos of Robert Irwin — son of the late “Crocodile Hunter” Steve Irwin — in handcuffs, accompanied by an article titled “Is this the end of his career? Robert Irwin didn’t know the camera was still recording.”

The fake article tells readers that a bank has filed a lawsuit against Irwin over comments he made about a crypto trading platform. It then promises to make readers rich if they invest $375 in that platform.

“We are urging Australians to take their time and do their research before taking up an investment opportunity — particularly those seen on social media,” ACCC Deputy Chair Catriona Lowe said in a statement.

Eye-popping investment opportunities in bogus online crypto trading platforms, especially ones that claim to use “artificial intelligence or other emerging technologies,” are an increasingly common scam tactic, the ACCC says.

At least one Australian man lost over $50,000 in cryptocurrency after registering his details through an online form that he saw in a deepfake interview of Elon Musk on social media, Lowe said.

Last month, the Hong Kong Securities and Futures Commission also warned about a sham cryptocurrency exchange using deepfake videos of Elon Musk, which also claimed to leverage AI in its software.

The FTC says most scams in the United States start on social media, with scammers trying to get victims to pay for investments in bitcoin so their crimes can’t be traced.

“Investment scams are one of the top ways scammers trick you into buying cryptocurrency and sending it on to scammers,” the FTC says. “But scammers are also impersonating businesses, government agencies, and a love interest, among other tactics.”

“Deepfakes” use AI to replace the likeness of a person in a video or audio clip. One quick way to spot a deepfake is to do a reverse image search and check the true source of an image.

The best way to avoid a crypto scam is to never trust someone who will only accept payment in crypto or who is promising big profit returns on an investment, the FTC says.