Cybercriminals managed to scam thousands of Apple fans with a fake cryptocurrency endorsement during the firm’s latest press event, the launch of its iPhone 14.
During Apple’s “Far Out” launch event earlier this week, cybercriminals streamed a parallel video on YouTube purporting to show the event. In fact, the video featured CEO Tim Cook in an interview with broadcaster CNN in 2018.
Apple buying Bitcoin
The fraudulent video was saturated with advertisements for cryptocurrency scams, including links that led to disreputable websites. Additionally, the crypto featured in the advertisement were relatively obscure and seemed rather suspicious.
Some ad banners displayed “Apple is buying 100,000 Bitcoins,” while others lured users to participate in a bogus Bitcoin giveaway. The ads also claimed that Apple was investing in Bitcoin, when it has already stated that it has not.
The fraudsters were able to earn revenue both through the clicks generated from the fake live stream and the false crypto websites.
Top of the charts
Upon closer inspection, the video revealed many flaws that are often signs of fraudulent activity. In addition to featuring the 2018 CNN interview, the video was informally titled, “Apple Event Live. CEO of Apple Tim Cook: Apple & Metaverse in 2022.”
The streamer also included the Bitcoin and Ethereum logos in the video stream, and obscured the CNN logo with the text “Apple Crypto Event 2022,” finally adding bold text reading…
