The Commission announced that a group operating under the names Quantum AI or AI Quantum used deepfake videos of well-known entrepreneur Elon Musk to make unsuspecting people believe that he was the name behind the platform. It is important not to confuse this group with NASA’s Quantum AI Lab (QuAIL), which is unrelated to fraudulent activities and focuses on quantum computer research.

Fraudsters Amplify Their Fraud with Deepfake. Taking advantage of the rapid developments in artificial intelligence technology, fraudsters are increasingly resorting to deepfakes to defraud victims.

Deepfake creates realistic video or audio clips by convincingly imitating the facial expressions and voice of a targeted individual using artificial intelligence algorithms. Fraudsters use deepfakes to make video calls with their victims, changing their appearance with the help of software and simulating the identity of the person they are impersonating.

A notorious group from Nigeria known as “The Yahoo Boys” has successfully used deepfakes in romance scams. The Hong Kong-based group involved in this incident claimed to offer cryptocurrency trading services powered by artificial intelligence.

However, authorities suspect that the operation served as a front for fraudulent activity related to virtual assets. As stated in the authorities’ warning, the group used three websites and two Facebook pages to carry out the crypto scams.

To lend credibility to their schemes, scammers used deepfake videos featuring Elon Musk, portraying him as the developer of their technology. They even spread fabricated information about their services by creating a fake “news” website to further deceive potential victims.

Hong Kong police quickly shut down all of the group’s websites and social media pages as a result of the investigation. However, the full extent of the damage caused by the fraud is not yet known.

Elon Musk’s Deepfakes Are Being Used to Deceive Users. This isn’t the first example of scammers using deepfakes featuring Elon Musk to orchestrate their fake schemes.

In a separate incident in April, a South Korean woman fell victim to scammers posing as Musk on Instagram and lost $50,000. The woman even had a video call with the deepfake Musk version, and the fraudster used expressions of affection towards the woman in this call.

“When we had a video call, he said, ‘I love you, you know that, right?’” the victim said on 60 Minutes. “He even said,” he explained the situation.

Singapore Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong also reportedly warned his social media followers against deepfake videos that promote cryptocurrency scams using his voice and image. Loong had even previously shared the interview video promoting the fake “hands-free crypto trading” scheme used by scammers.