According to a Binance public relations executive, fraudsters created a deep-fake "AI hologram" of him to scam cryptocurrency projects via Zoom video calls.
Patrick Hillmann, chief communications officer at the crypto hypermart, stated he received messages from project teams thanking him for meeting with them virtually to discuss listing their digital assets on Binance over the past month. This raised some suspicions because Hillmann isn't involved in the exchange's listings and doesn't know the people messaging him.
"It turns out that a sophisticated hacking team used previous news interviews and TV appearances over the years to create a 'deep fake' of me," Hillmann said. "Other than the 15 pounds that I gained during COVID being noticeably absent, this deep fake was refined enough to fool several highly intelligent crypto community members."
Hillmann included a screenshot of a project manager asking him to confirm that he was, in fact, on a Zoom call in his write-up this week. The hologram is the latest example of cybercriminals impersonating Binance employees and executives on Twitter, LinkedIn, and other social media platforms.
Scams abound in the cryptocurrency world.
Despite highlighting a wealth of security experts and systems at Binance, Hillman insisted that users must be the first line of defence against scammers. He wrote that they can do so by being vigilant, using the Binance Verify tool, and reporting anything suspicious to Binance support.
“I was not prepared for the onslaught of cyberattacks, phishing attacks, and scams that regularly target the crypto community. Now I understand why Binance goes to the lengths it does,” he added.
The only proof Hillman provided was a screenshot of a chat with someone asking him to confirm a Zoom call they previously had. Hillman responds: “That was not me,” before the unidentified person posts a link to somebody’s LinkedIn profile, telling Hillman “This person sent me a Zoom link then your hologram was in the zoom, please report the scam”.
The fight against deepfakes
Deepfakes are becoming more common in the age of misinformation and artificial intelligence, as technological advancements make convincing digital impersonations of people online more viable.
They are sometimes highly realistic fabrications that have sparked global outrage, particularly when used in a political context. A deepfake video of Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy was posted online in March of this year, with the digital impersonation of the leader telling citizens to surrender to Russia.
On Twitter, one version of the deepfake was viewed over 120,000 times. In its fight against disinformation, the European Union has targeted deepfakes, recently requiring tech companies such as Google, Facebook, and Twitter to take countermeasures or face heavy fines.