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Scammers are rubbing salt in the wounds of FTX customers by using deepfake videos of the company’s disgraced founder in an attempt to scam them out of money.
The collapse of the major crypto exchange earlier this month left an estimated one million creditors facing losses totaling billions of dollars, and in their desperation scammers are apparently seeing opportunity.
Using a verified Twitter account that has since been suspended, the unknown scammers posted a manipulated video of FTX founder Sam Bankman-Fried offering to “double your crypto,” according to Shame.
The ‘giveaway’ scam is a simple and ubiquitous scam in the cryptocurrency world where the fraudsters ask for donations of bitcoin or other digital currencies and promise to return double the amount received. In reality, they don’t return anything.
Real footage of Sam Bankman-Fried in an interview can be seen on the left, while on the right is a deepfake video used by scammers to target victims of the FTX collapse
The video led the victims to a scam website (above) which has since been taken down
In the scam video targeting FTX users, the deepfake Bankman-Fried says, “Hello everyone. As you know, our FTX exchange is going bankrupt. But I hasten to inform all users not to panic.’
As compensation for the loss, we have prepared a giveaway for you, in which you can double your cryptocurrency. Go to for this [website redacted],” the video adds, directing victims to a scam website that has since been taken down.
The fake website used clunky grammar but sophisticated graphics to lure potential victims, and featured a fake scrolling visual showing alleged transactions being sent from the scammer’s wallet.
In reality, the Bitcoin wallet used by the scammers has never transacted and has a zero balance.
The scammer’s Ethereum wallet received four deposits totaling about $1,400 between Oct. 18 and Nov. 18, according to a blockchain analysis, but it’s unclear whether any of these deposits came from unsuspecting victims.
The scam website can be seen above. The scammer works by promising to return double the amount of crypto for every transaction. The scammer doesn’t return anything
The deepfake video created by the scammers appears to be based on footage from an interview Bankman-Fried did with Bloomberg Markets and Finance last month.
To make the scam even more legit, the deepfake video was posted by a verified Twitter account posing as Bankman-Fried.
The verified badge was likely obtained during the brief and chaotic rollout of Elon Musk’s new Twitter Blue program, which offered the badge to anyone who paid $8.
The program was suspended after impersonators and trolls went on a rampage, obtained the badges and impersonated corporations and public figures.
Musk initially promised to bring Twitter Blue back on Nov. 29, but the rollout has been postponed indefinitely “to make sure it’s ironclad,” Musk said in a tweet.
Meanwhile, the first bankruptcy hearing for FTX took place in Delaware court on Tuesday, where a lawyer for the company, James Bromley, said, “We’re dealing with a different kind of animal here.”
“Unfortunately, the FTX accounts receivable were not particularly well managed, which is an understatement,” he added.
The stricken crypto exchange FTX was run as a ‘personal fiefdom’ of founder Sam Bankman-Fried, lawyers for the company said Tuesday
At the hearing, a lawyer for FTX also said the company continues to be a victim of cyber-attacks as bankruptcy begins, and that “substantial” assets are missing.
It seemed to confirm previous reports that hundreds of millions in cryptocurrency were apparently stolen by hackers in the chaos as the company collapsed.
FTX’s cash balance of $1.24 billion on Sunday was “significantly higher” than previously thought, according to a Monday night filing by Edgar Mosley of Alvarez & Marshal, a consulting firm that advises FTX.
It includes about $400 million in accounts related to Alameda Research, the crypto trading company owned by FTX founder Sam Bankman-Fried, and $172 million in FTX’s Japanese arm.
FTX, which said on Saturday it has launched a strategic review of its global assets and is preparing to sell or reorganize some companies, had previously said it owes its 50 largest creditors nearly $3.1 billion.