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Cryptocurrency Scammers Using Deepfake AI and ChatGPT-Related Keywords to Trick Victims: Report
The report titled “AI-Enabled Crime in the Cryptocurrency Ecosystem” examined the rise of AI-generated deepfakes of top cryptocurrency influencers [File]
| Photo credit: REUTERS
Cryptocurrency scammers use artificial intelligence in several ways, including celebrity deepfakes for endorsements and trending buzzwords such as GPT, in order to deceive victims investing in crypto-assets, blockchain analysis platform Elliptic revealed in its new report.
The report titled “AI-Enabled Crime in the Cryptocurrency Ecosystem” examined the rise of AI-generated deepfakes of top crypto influencers, political leaders, and even cryptocurrency exchange employees, in order to create a fake sense of trust among users.
According to the report, deepfakes of former Singapore Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong, Taiwan’s eighth president Lai Ching-te and Elon Musk showed them promoting cryptocurrencies or other investment scams.
On the other hand, AI-powered deepfakes have also been used by cryptocurrency exchanges to provide fake but hyper-realistic images of employees or leaders and make their websites appear legitimate.
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Other scammers have exploited the hype surrounding generative AI technologies in general, using the names of popular language models or other industry-specific buzzwords, to promote dubious crypto tokens.
“AI is the hype-generating target of a number of recent scam tokens. There are hundreds of tokens listed on different blockchains that have some variations of the term “GPT” in their name, including “GPT4 Token”, “CryptoGPT”, and “GPT Coin” – among others. Some may indeed reflect well-intentioned initiatives, but some of them have been scammed in amateur trading forums where the scammers claim some form of official association with ChatGPT or other seemingly legitimate AI companies,” Elliptic noted in its report.
Cryptocurrency crimes and criminals are difficult to track as the decentralized nature of such transactions can hinder law enforcement efforts.
Cryptocurrency exchanges, especially unregulated ones, also have fewer KYC requirements or recovery procedures to safeguard their customers.