Scammers used a deepfake AI hologram of Binance executive to scam crypto projects

Scammers used a deepfake AI hologram of the Binance chief communications officer for fraudulent activities.

Patrick Hillmann, chief communications officer of Binance, confirmed that scammers used his Deepfake AI hologram to trick users into online meetings and target the projects of clients of the company.

Hillmann explained in a blog post that the attack was orchestrated by a “sophisticated hacking team” that used video footage of interviews and TV appearances to create the deepfake video.

“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. 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.” reads the post. “Other than the 15 pounds that I gained during Covid being noticeably absent, this deepfake was refined enough to fool several highly intelligent crypto community members”

The executive also reported that the company is observing a spike in scammers pretending to be Binance employees and executives on platforms such as Twitter, LinkedIn, Telegram, etc.

Hillmann added that he received several online messages thanking him for the time spent in meetings with project teams regarding potential opportunities to list their assets on Binance.com. However Hillmann clarified that he has no insight or oversight into Binance listings and he never met with project teams before.

Using this Deepfake hologram, the scammers trick people into online meetings and target Binance clients and their crypto projects.

Follow me on Twitter: @securityaffairs and Facebook

Pierluigi Paganini

(SecurityAffairs – hacking, deepfake)