Cryptocurrency fraudsters seize control of prominent Australian news broadcasters YouTube channel

Crypto scammers have taken control of the YouTube news channel belonging to the Seven Network, a major Australian broadcaster. The hijacked channel displayed videos of a deepfake Elon Musk discussing cryptocurrency. The AI-generated fake Musk promoted a common scam, promising to double the amount of any crypto sent to a specified address. At the time of writing, approximately 150,000 viewers were watching three livestreams featuring the fake Musk on the Seven News channel. It is unclear how many of these viewers are bots attempting to boost viewership. Although links to the 7News YouTube channel were broken, the hijacked channel still displayed the news organization’s verification tick. A spokesperson from Seven confirmed that the company was aware of the issue and was working with YouTube to resolve it. YouTube stated that it immediately investigated the compromise and is taking steps to secure the accounts and stop the unauthorized livestreams. The scammers’ website requested Bitcoin (BTC), Ether (ETH), Solana (SOL), and Dogecoin (DOGE), with the listed addresses holding a total of just over $11,000. Elon Musk is a popular target for scammers using deepfakes in crypto scams. In recent weeks, several YouTube livestreams featured fake Musks promoting similar double-your-money scams. Hong Kong’s securities regulator shut down a company that used AI-generated videos of Musk to promote its supposed AI crypto trading service. The attack on the 7News YouTube account occurred during the same week that parent company Seven West Media announced job cuts, affecting some marketing roles.