Did Elon Musk and Donald Trump team up to conduct a cryptocurrency scam that would violate election laws, as claimed in a post on X? No, that's not true: Footage from the 2024 Tesla shareholder's meeting, streamed live, was altered with a fake AI-generated voice and facial synchronizing animation. Musk's original presentation had no mention of "crypto", the altered video is a scam using the likenesses of Musk and Trump to lure in victims.
The altered video appeared in a post (archived here) on Threads by @picassokat on August 20, 2024. It was captioned:
Unbelievable!! The 'richest man in the world' has teamed up with a major party candidate for POTUS, in a crypto currency scam that also violates federal election laws.
This is how the post appeared on Threads at the time of writing:
(Source: Threads screenshot taken on Thu Aug 22 17:13:38 2024 UTC)
The promoted crypto scam includes the image of Trump in the QR code banner that sends the user to a bogus website promising to automatically double the deposit during a "special event."
It is not clear if this post aims to indirectly spread the scam or to disparage former President Trump by claiming his involvement with it.
The AI-generated voice in this video says:
Right now we are offering to double your cryptocurrency. Yes, you heard that right. All you need to do is scan the QR code appearing on the screen for our online viewers. Once you scan it you will immediately gain access to a secure site where you can easily double your bitcoin, Ethereum, dogecoin, or USDT. Just follow the simple instructions to transfer the required amount to the given address, and within about five minutes your cryptocurrency wallet will be credited with the doubled deposit. Imagine sending just 0.1 bitcoin and getting 0.2 in return, of transferring one Ethereum and seeing your balance double to two. It's that simple, transparent, and it can truly change your life. There are no age or nationality restrictions so anyone around the world can participate.
This scam is nothing new. On August 14, 2024, The New York Times published an extensive article titled, "How 'Deepfake Elon Musk' Became the Internet's Biggest Scammer -- An A.I.-powered version of Mr. Musk has appeared in thousands of inauthentic ads, contributing to billions in fraud." This article points to examples of people losing large amounts of money in deepfake Elon Musk scams they found on Facebook and YouTube as far back as February 2023. The article also includes several side-by-side examples comparing original video footage with altered versions. The article emphasizes that these videos are cheap to produce and are even promoted in paid ads on Facebook.
Thousands of these A.I.-driven videos, known as deepfakes, have flooded the internet in recent months featuring phony versions of Mr. Musk deceiving scores of would-be investors. A.I.-powered deepfakes are expected to contribute to billions of dollars in fraud losses each year, according to estimates from Deloitte.
The Federal Trade Commission has a Consumer Advice page titled, "What To Know About Cryptocurrency and Scams." In the section on investment scams, one bullet point describes the type of scam that is the focus of this fact check:
A scammer pretends to be a celebrity who can multiply any cryptocurrency you send them. But celebrities aren't contacting you through social media. It's a scammer. And if you click on an unexpected link they send or send cryptocurrency to a so-called celebrity's QR code, that money will go straight to a scammer and it'll be gone.
The QR code in the manipulated video shows pictures of Trump and Musk with the text "Scan or Regret." The QR code directs to the website teslaweb.io (archived here). The scam website claims this is an "Official event from the Tesla Company" and states:
Huge crypto-giveaway during to the launch!
During this unique event, you have the opportunity to take a share of 1,000 BTC & 10,000 ETH & 100,000,000 DOGE & 10,000,000 USDT. Have a look at the rules and don't miss out on this. You can only participate once!
Here is how the catch is presented by the bogus website:
How does it work?
Everything is pretty simple. You make a deposit, then our system counts your bonus and automatically sends it back!
The FTC article warns:
Cryptocurrency payments typically are not reversible. Once you pay with cryptocurrency, you can usually only get your money back if the person you paid sends it back. Before you buy something with cryptocurrency, know the seller's reputation, by doing some research before you pay.
This altered video footage shows Musk wearing a brown jacket over a black T-shirt, on stage in front of a neon sign that reads "Cyber Roundup 2024 Texas." This footage is from the June 13, 2024, annual shareholder meeting that was streamed live on the YouTube Tesla channel (original footage pictured below). Lead Stories searched the transcript of this 2:26:15-hour-long video for the words "cryptocurrency" and "crypto." These words are not spoken once in the original video.
(Source: YouTube screenshot taken on Thu Aug 22 18:14:04 2024 UTC)
Lead Stories used TrueMedia.org to analyze the 51-second-long clip from Threads. This toolset, currently in beta testing, uses a variety of tools to look for specific signs of manipulation. TrueMedia found there was substantial evidence of manipulation (see full report here) with one tool returning a 99 percent confidence reading that there was face manipulation. Another tool had a 92 percent confidence reading that the audio was AI generated.
(Source: TrueMedia.org screenshot taken on Thu Aug 22 18:14:04 2024 UTC)
This is not the only website conducting this scam. On August 4, 2024, a user on X posted a thread (archived here) about something he observed on YouTube, including several screenshots showing similar QR code banners pointing to other websites. He wrote:
Youtube Live Channel popped up pulling off an epic crypto scam...
Deep Fake getting people to signup for a crypto scheme. 14 Youtube Channels pushing the same thing have popped up and they are feeding in 'real' moments into the fake live stream.
Wild.
Lead Stories found another example of a "fake" 35-minute-long YouTube livestream titled, "LIVE: Elon Musk Supports Trump in Debate Showdown with Kamala Harris." It streamed live on YouTube on August 21, 2024. In the screenshots pictured below, at 26:06 minutes into the fake livestream, it switches from showing footage from the 2023 shareholder's meeting to the altered footage from the 2024 meeting. The scam promotion QR Code points to teslainc2x.org (archived here) a malicious site with a similar bogus offer as found at teslaweb.io. This livestream fakery is made especially obvious by Musk's wardrobe switch in a matter of seconds -- in the original 2023 shareholder's meeting footage this cut would occur just after 26:22.
(Source: Lead Stories composite image with YouTube screenshots taken on Thu Aug 22 20:11:44 2024 UTC)
Additional Lead Stories articles addressing false claims about Elon Musk and cryptocurrency and be found here and here.
