7News’ YouTube channel – which boasts 1.71 million subscribers – appears to have been hacked and used to live-stream an AI-generated Elon Musk cryptocurrency scam.
About 60,000 people were watching one live-stream and 45,000 were watching another as of 11.10am on Thursday before they were taken down, and then re-uploaded.
The stream showed an artificial intelligence representation of Musk, the owner and chief executive of Tesla, touting a cryptocurrency scam while standing in front of a Tesla car. Later, two more streams were uploaded showing a Tesla launch event for its cybertruck in 2023.
Seven’s main YouTube channel has been taken down and hyperlinks to the page are broken, with a message displayed saying it is unavailable.
A Seven spokesman said it was aware that some of its branded YouTube channels were not appearing as they should.
“Seven is investigating and working with YouTube to resolve the situation as soon as possible,” the spokesman said.
The scam encourages viewers to scan a QR code on screen and deposit money into the scheme, offering them the opportunity to “double their assets”.
“Let’s make this evening unforgettable and double your wealth with Tesla,” the AI-generated Musk says.
YouTube has been contacted for comment.
The hack adds to a torrid week for the media company, which made 150 staff redundant, including three of its most senior executives as it battles with an ailing advertising market, and an expected exit of commercial revenue from Meta.
Cryptocurrency scams have surged in recent years, with billionaire businessman Andrew “Twiggy” Forrest currently embroiled in legal action with tech giant Facebook over fraudulent crypto ads featuring his likeness.
On Wednesday, rock band Metallica’s X accounts were hacked by cryptocurrency scammers who promoted a crypto token, “METAL”, before the band’s management reclaimed the accounts and deleted the posts.
And in 2020, Musk and other high-profile X accounts including those belonging to US President Joe Biden and Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates were hacked to promote bitcoin.
Australia’s corporate watchdog has taken down more than 2500 investment scam and phishing websites since July last year, with many related to scam crypto investments.
More to come
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