Fraudsters Promote Apple Crypto Scam on YouTube, Seemingly Endorsed by Tim Cook

Apple's Far Out event, where it announced the new iPhone 14 and many other new devices, was immediately used to promote a crypto scam on YouTube.

Hijacking important events to promote or trick people into participating in crypto scams is becoming the norm. So much so that we might have to start paying attention to these types of scams just like we look for spam, malware or any other online threat.

The recipe is simple. Fraudsters take an image of a famous person, usually from public figures in the tech industry, and package videos, conferences or simple discussions to journalists in a way that makes it appear like they're talking about some new crypto venture.

The Verge accidentally stumbled upon this latest crypto scheme when a video popped up in one of the editors' YouTube playlists promoting a fake crypto scheme with an old video of Apple CEO Tim Cook.

The targets are likely people who know that Apple is holding a significant event and launching new products, but are not particularly interested and not watching anything on official channels. According to The Verge, the criminals took an old CNN interview of Tim Cook, rebranded it with the new information, and made it look like it had something to do with the new Apple event.

Of course, everything is designed to guide potential victims to click on links to a crypto website promising great rewards. The channel's URL didn't seem to have anything to do with Apple or crypto, but that's a common occurrence. It wouldn't be the first time attackers have taken over a YouTube channel and started promoting crypto scams to subscribers.