Deepfake crypto scams targeting TikTok and YouTube users

Happy Friday 

As you might have guessed, not only is AI helping your kids write perfect papers for school but it's made the scammers a whole lot more dangerous.

They're using AI to analyze data from social media, online forums and ton of free and public data databases. As a bit of a side note, if you really want to be terrified about what personal data about you and the people you know has been leaked, go to truepeoplesearch.com. Sites like this come and go and you can bet the bad guys are scraping every piece of data they can get about you.

By correlating data sources, scammers detect patterns and choose their victims for phishing or impersonation campaigns. And thanks to AI, look-alike websites, social media accounts and videos have become so realistic that it's getting progressively harder to spot the fakes. In fact, researchers at PaloAlto have found crooks selling deepfake tools and services to let scammers create fake audio, video and images, including face swaps and deepfake videos. Prices vary: face-swapping services like Swapface cost between free and $249 per month, while custom deepfake videos usually range from $60 to $500, depending on complexity and quality.

Services like this give enormous power to crooks. AI allows them to create and manage thousands of phishing messages, fake support agents or investment bots at scale.

Deepfake crypto scams are targeting TikTok and YouTube users

I've personally spoken to a number of people who have lost thousands and sometimes hundreds of thousands of dollars to these scams. The scammers often pretend to be legitimate, using deepfake videos of well-known figures like Elon Musk, Mr. Beast, or Donald Trump to lure users into a cryptocurrency scheme. They appear mainly on TikTok and YouTube, which makes sense since both platforms have billions of active users.

The Takeaway

So, here's the important lesson and it's a repeat from last week's message about the AI robot that got PTSD from its encounter with a lion: be skeptical of everything you see online.

Ready to get rich quick by investing with crypto? 🤔

Have you found someone who's "cracked the code" and is now making millions (and can show you how)? 🤔

Got a message from someone you know (or trust) with these claims? 🤔

Sorry to be the bearer of bad news but it's most likely a scam.

Stay skeptical and stay safe out there.

PS. If you're interested in a fun Netflix watch this weekend, I recommend the series Love Con Revenge. It's about romance scammers. They're not the same as online scammers but use a similar playbook. It might help you spot the red flags with someone you know who's being targeted.

Stay safe out there

-Attila

New Friday Funnies!

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How do you get a hardcore crypto technical analyst off your front porch?

Pay him for the pizza.

What do you call a successful NFT investor?

A time traveler.

What do you call a cryptocurrency that was developed

by an anonymous person and promises a hundred-fold return?

A rug pull.

Why does Superman hate trading Bitcoin after 7pm?

Because it's Crypto-night