Scammers rip off FTX cheated – with deepfake video by Sam Bankman-Fried – t3n – digital pioneers
Fake Bankman fried in deepfake video. (Screenshot: SBF/Twitter)
As if they hadn’t lost enough in the FTX bust, victims of the crypto exchange have been targeted by scammers. With a deepfake video of ex-CEO Sam Bankman-Fried, the money is supposed to be pulled out of their pockets.
With a deepfake video showing former FTX CEO Sam Bankman-Fried, scammers are currently trying to rip off victims of the crypto exchange’s billion-dollar bankruptcy.
The fraudsters are not only helped by the concerns of investors that they will not see their money again. The chaos surrounding the verification of Twitter accounts after the takeover by Elon Musk also plays into their hands.
Because the deepfake video was played out via a verified Bankman-Fried fake account. In it, the alleged ex-FTX CEO promised users “compensation for the losses”.
Specifically, those affected should visit a website – which is of course fake – and transfer a certain amount in a cryptocurrency (Bitcoin or Ether) to a wallet specified there. The promise: If you do this, you will get double the amount back.
This is of course nonsense and a popular scam among crypto scammers. This has often been attempted in the past in comments on Elon Musk’s announcements via Twitter.
But the problem is that – at least temporarily – every Twitter user could get one of the blue verification ticks for only $8 a month.
The chaos surrounding the blue hooks had already led to misuse and severe hostilities in the past. The system is therefore currently paused and should only start again in a week.
The fake account of the alleged Bankman-Fried, which has since been blocked, ran under the name SBF, the abbreviation of the ex-billionaire who is currently fighting against his extradition from the Bahamas.
A verification tick and a picture of Bankman-Fried reinforced the impression that the account was a real one. If you looked closely, you could be suspicious just because of the account name “@S4GE_ETH”.
In any case, the scammers had made every effort with the deepfake video Gizmodo reports. They probably took the material from a Bloomberg interview.
On the fake page, which the users were supposed to visit, allegedly successful transfers were then displayed. A crypto payout of $100 million was advertised here. Here, too, the scam detector could have started. Because there were numerous spelling mistakes.
Despite their efforts, the scammers are said not to have had much success with the scam. Should be on the Ethereum address according to Vice a little over $1,000 in ether (ETH) may have been deposited. Nothing was found on the bitcoin wallet.
