Thousands of viewers were scammed into watching a fake Apple crypto live streaming on YouTube with Tim Cook on stage during the actual streaming of an iPhone launch event.
The bogus stream was an old interview of Cook with CNN conducted in 2018. Scammers were able to grab the attention of viewers by getting the video to the top of search results during the iPhone event using a bunch of Apple-related keywords. The scammers tried to trick users and take them to a website advertising cryptocurrency scams.
The video was later removed by YouTube for violating its terms of service, IANS reported. The stream was titled “Apple Event Live. CEO of Apple Tim Cook: Apple & Metaverse in 2022.”
While there were Bitcoin and Ethereum logos added to the video stream, the YouTube user placed the text “Apple Crypto Event 2022” to cover the CNN Money logo.
A text reading “Urgent News” was placed at the bottom. When people clicked into the channel’s page, they were directed to the fake crypto scam website.
According to The Verge, nearly 70000 viewers had watched the fake stream before their story was published.
The fake stream tried to con those aware of the Apple big launch event. On Wednesday, Apple launched the new iPhone 14 series with four models — iPhone 14, 14 Plus, 14 Pro and 14 Pro Max. The event also saw the launch of three Apple Watch models and a second-generation AirPods Pro. CEO Tim Cook was interviewed the same evening at Vox Media’s Code conference.
This is not the first time fraudsters tried to scam users during an Apple event. Scammers tricked a whopping 165,000 people into watching a fake YouTube stream during an Apple event last September, U.Today reported. The video announced that Apple would buy 100,000 BTC and organise a giveaway event next to an old interview of Cook.
