Deepfake Elon Musk crypto/investment scam videos

Through 2024 fraudsters ran fake livestreams and ads featuring AI-generated video and voice of Elon Musk soliciting cryptocurrency 'doubling' giveaways and investment opportunities — including a SpaceX-branded YouTube livestream during the April 8 2024 solar eclipse viewed by tens of thousands (logged by the OECD.AI incident monitor). Reported victims include Heidi Swan, a 62-year-old who lost over US$10,000 after seeing convincing fake Musk clips on Facebook and TikTok; AI firm Sensity has found Musk to be the most-impersonated celebrity in deepfake scams. Deloitte estimated AI-generated content contributed to more than US$12B in fraud losses in the US in 2024 and could reach US$40B by 2027 — figures preserved here as third-party estimates, not confirmed totals — illustrating deepfaked-public-figure endorsement fraud at scale.