ALBAWABA - Social media platforms have circulated a video claiming to be shared by American billionaire Elon Musk, where he allegedly pledges to provide $10,000 to anyone who opens an account on his digital currency website.
The compiled footage from the comedy show "Last Week Tonight" hosted by English comedian John Oliver featured a voice resembling Elon Musk, offering the amount to encourage people to trade the currency. It promised that those who open an account on a specialized website would receive $10,000 directly.
The video spread on TikTok and was edited using deepfake technology to produce Elon Musk's voice. Deepfake is an artificial intelligence-based technique that replaces a person's face with another targeted person's face or replaces one person's voice with another. One commentator mentioned that they saw the video on TikTok and provided their banking information before realizing it was a fraudulent operation.
Some video publishers resorted to disabling comments to prevent users from uncovering the scam that led some individuals to enter their banking information to receive the fake amount.
TikTok deleted multiple copies of the video after being reported by users.
