In a brazen act of cybercrime, the YouTube channel of Australia’s prominent news broadcaster, 7News, was taken over by crypto scammers. These fraudsters used the hijacked platform to livestream videos featuring a deep fake of Tesla CEO Elon Musk, promoting a notorious cryptocurrency scam.

The compromised YouTube channel was rebranded to resemble Tesla's official channel. The deep fake videos featured an AI-generated Musk, fraudulently claiming to double any cryptocurrency sent to specified addresses. This classic "double-your-money" scam garnered significant attention, with around 150,000 viewers across three livestreams at the time of reporting. It remains unclear how many of these viewers were genuine and how many were bots employed to artificially inflate viewership numbers.

Despite the altered appearance of the channel, including broken links, the hijacked 7News YouTube channel still displayed the news organization’s verification tick, misleading viewers about its authenticity. A spokesperson for the Seven Network acknowledged the issue, stating, "Seven is investigating and working with YouTube to resolve the situation as soon as possible." As of yet, YouTube has not responded to requests for comment.

The scammers directed viewers to a website soliciting Bitcoin (BTC), Ether (ETH), Solana (SOL), and Dogecoin (DOGE). The listed cryptocurrency addresses had accumulated over $11,000. This incident is part of a larger trend where scammers exploit Elon Musk’s public image to lure victims into crypto scams. Earlier in the month, more than 35 YouTube livestreams featured similar fake Musks, coinciding with SpaceX’s Starship rocket launch.

The problem isn’t confined to YouTube alone. Hong Kong’s securities regulator recently shut down a firm that used AI-faked videos of Musk on its social media accounts and website, falsely claiming that Musk had developed technology for an AI crypto trading service.

This incident underscores the increasing sophistication of crypto scams, leveraging AI and deep fake technology to exploit high-profile public figures and reputable platforms. It serves as a stark reminder of the need for heightened vigilance and robust cybersecurity measures to combat such fraudulent activities.