FTX News: SBF’s Viral Deepfake Lures Customers For Refund

In a news related to FTX’s former CEO, Sam Bankman-Fried went viral on Twitter due to a deepfake video this Friday morning. In the deepfake, SBF appeared to promise the victims of FTX — to make all of them whole again by doubling their money through a typical giveaway scam. The account through which this fraud got promoted, was Twitter verified and the exact impersonation of SBF’s personal account made things even more worse.

Deepfake Coupled With Giveaway Scam

The deepfake video pointed viewers to a website where they could participate in a giveaway to win cryptocurrencies. Crypto giveaways are a frequent fraud where the victim gives tokens to the con artist but receives nothing in return, frequently using fictitious celebrity accounts.

The viral deepfake video took everyone by surprise as it seemed SBF to be saying:

“Hello everyone. As you know our FTX exchange is going bankrupt, but I hasten to inform all users that you should not panic. As compensation for the loss we have prepared a giveaway for you in which you can double your cryptocurrency. To do this, just go to the site ftxcompensation.com”

The video was quickly screen-recorded by a Twitter profile before it got taken down.

Over the weekend, a verified account posing as FTX founder SBF posted dozens of copies of this deepfake video offering FTX users "compensation for the loss" in a phishing scam designed to drain their crypto wallets pic.twitter.com/3KoAPRJsya

— Jason Koebler (@jason_koebler) November 21, 2022

Con-artists On Rise After FTX Collapse News

The self-described altruistic genius in charge of the collapsed bitcoin exchange FTX owes $3 billion to creditors, and has balance sheets that are so dubious, that the future looks extremely bleak. As FTX burns, its stakeholders are searching for some sort of compensation, which has made it easier for con artists to act.

Read More: SBF Received $1Bn In Personal Loans From Alameda Research

On the other hand, the website stated, “At this difficult time, we will give you the opportunity to get 5,000 BTC or 50,000 ETH.” The website was found to be registered to a person in Nevis, an island close to Puerto Rico, and prominently displays Bankman-Fried’s face and the FTX emblem.

In order to persuade users to send cryptocurrency, the website continuously updates a list of false transactions. The linked Ethereum address is now holding slightly over $1,000 in ETH, while the associated Bitcoin address has not yet received any coins.

Since then, the Twitter account has been suspended. The SBF deepfake may nevertheless reappear given the platform’s mounting security issues and scammers’ perseverance.