In the tech world, there are hardly two bigger words you would associate with money these days than Apple and Crypto. It almost seems like everything Apple touches turns to gold while crypto is constantly turning internet degenerates into millionaires and sometimes even billionaires. It makes sense then that these two money-making ideas will come together to form a perfect storm scam to try and catch out unwitting victims, as has been happening recently on YouTube. Here is what you need to know.
Recently, a scammer live-streamed an old interview with Apple CEO Tim Cook that appeared to be promoting a crypto scam. On top of the old interview, the scammer had placed the Bitcoin and Ethereum logos as well as placing text saying “Apple Crypto Event 2022” over the CNN Money logo that was a part of the original broadcast from 2018.
The stream also had an Urgent News banner at the bottom of the screen and linked to a URL that had nothing to do with Apple at all. Worryingly, when the stream went out, tens of thousands of viewers watched it.
According to a reporter at The Verge, the scam stream popped up on his YouTube homepage, which likely occurred because of all the spammy Apple keywords used in the video’s title and description at a time when Apple videos will be getting a lot of attention on YouTube due to the official launch of the iPhone 14, which has just taken place.
YouTube has since deleted the video stream, as well as another dodgy-looking stream, also reported on by The Verge. Unfortunately, however, unless the video streaming platform adjusts its algorithm or works on boosting its moderation efforts these types of scams will continue to thrive on the platform. The fact that this fake stream was able to show up on users’ YouTube homepages is particularly worrying.
As always with these types of scams, we ask you to remain vigilant when you are online and pay attention to signs that you are being scammed. To help you do this, read our phishing protection guide and infographic.
