Bogus Ads Use Elon Musk’s Image to Steal Victims’ Savings

​It’s a classic crypto investment scam, which these days are often enhanced with fake endorsements by Musk.​ ​

The criminals behind these scams use sophisticated technology, including realistic-looking AI-generated deepfake videos, to convince scam victims that their appeals are Musk-sanctioned — and some victims are losing their life savings.​ ​

“I have no money,” says Ramsubhag, who finally blocked texts from Sofia several weeks ago. “I have bills unpaid,” he adds. “And I will have to pay taxes. It’s a terrible situation.”​

He reported the scam to the FBI, and is still hoping for resolution. ​ ​

A growing scourge: Elon Musk impostors​ ​

Criminals love to use the names and likenesses of celebrities like Vince Gill, Oprah Winfrey and Kim Kardashian to perpetrate their scams, whether through ads for useless weight loss gummies, illegitimate charitable appeals, or investment scams. Unfortunately, they now have artificial intelligence to help make their ads look relatively legitimate, to varying degrees. And Musk is a high-profile figure associated with successful entrepreneurship and the tech industry, is vocal in his support for cryptocurrency and has a famously vast fortune. Who better to impersonate in (fake) crypto investment pitches?​ 

​“Scammers know that he is well-known and the richest person in the world, so they use the allure of his success to try and manipulate you with FOMO, the fear of missing out,” says Amy Nofziger, director of victim support for the AARP Fraud Watch Network, whose Helpline (877-908-3360) — a free service offering advice and support for scam victims and their families — has received a range of calls from people (including Ramsubhag) who’ve lost money to investments or products supposedly backed by Musk, according to Nofziger. ​ ​

Among recent callers: a woman trying to help — and stop — her parents, who had given $30,000 to a scammer touting Musk-backed investments, and were preparing to fly to Texas, where, they were told, they’d have a chance to meet Musk in person.​ ​It’s hard to quantify how many people have been victimized by these fakes because scams are known to be overwhelmingly underreported. We do know that from February to October of last year, the Federal Trade Commission received 247 Musk-related scam reports, according to the tech news site Gizmodo, which culled through FTC data it had obtained through a FOIA request. One victim of an investment scam that used Musk’s name lost $220,000, and another lost $700,000, according to the story, and “most of the victims appear to be elderly.”​​ ​ ​

What the Elon Musk impostors are selling​ ​

Criminals are using Musk’s likeness to sell various products or investments, including: 

1. An energy-saving device

A widely disseminated spam email features an ad with Musk holding up some sort of handheld gadget, topped by a headline: “Elon Musk’s New Electricity Saving Invention Has Residents Saving Up to 90% Off Their Monthly Electric Bill. Electric Power Companies Are Demanding It Be Banned Immediately!”

Another variation on the ad refers to the gadget as Pro Power, and includes an image of Musk with, bizarrely, the actor Leonard DiCaprio. A red button reads “Get It Now!”

It appears to be the same product that several victims have reported to the Better Business Bureau (BBB)’s Scam Tracker in the past several weeks alone. One claimed to have lost $152, writing, “Ordered three units of portable heaters advertised as being developed by Elon Musk. Advertised to lower heating costs. It fails to deliver much heat whatsoever. Each heater can barely heat a closet. A 365-day return policy but there’s no way to return and get a refund to my credit card.” ​ ​

2. A sure-bet investment platform

Musk is the most commonly impersonated public figure to appear in a widespread scam that uses deepfakes of celebrities (who also include Tucker Carlson and Ryan Reynolds) to sell bogus investments in a crypto-based platform called Quantum AI, according to a 2024 report by the deepfake detection company Sensity. The report includes a fabricated video of Jim Carrey saying he’d made big money by investing in Quantum AI: “I had no qualms about it — after all the creator of the platform is Elon Musk. Now my funds are growing dozens of times faster… I highly suggest you try it too.”​ ​

Another deepfake video has a voice-over declaring that Musk and his partners have “already invested $54 billion” in Quantum AI. The video depicts Musk on a stage saying, “I’ve developed a new algorithm that earns from $2,000 in five hours.” ​ ​

“These endorsements are entirely fictitious and designed to lure unsuspecting victims into investing money on platforms that offer nothing in return,” the report notes.​ ​

3. Freebies

People have lost money or become vulnerable to identity theft by responding to messages on social media announcing that Musk is giving away money — then the victims find out that first they need to pay a fee, or are asked for sensitive personal information. One victim who reportedly lost $6,000 in the scam told the BBB that “the impersonator claimed to be Elon Musk promising a car, house $250000 [SIC]. I must pay for transportation of car and taxes.”​ ​ ​

AI advancements and scams​ 

​These scams reveal the dark side of AI technology, in which the voices and faces of people you know can be impeccably faked as part of an effort to steal your money or identity. ​ ​

The tech’s growing sophistication is making it far harder to tell if a video is fake, says Alexa Volland, video producer and deepfake expert with the News Literacy Project, a nonprofit that works to counter the spread of misinformation. “Some of the very early AI-generated videos from several years ago were kind of eerie and scary to look at. A person would have another arm pop out or another leg.” She points to one recent video on social media of a baby polar bear being rescued by firefighters in California: If you look closely the bear has five limbs. But “as AI continues to improve,” she adds, “it's going to get more difficult for people to decipher what is true and what is false."​ ​

The alarm bells about AI’s potential for harm began ringing in March 2023, when more than 1,000 tech leaders, including Musk, signed an open letter warning that AI tools present “profound risks to society and humanity,” and urging a pause in companies’ development of the most powerful, advanced tech. “Should we let machines flood our information channels with propaganda and untruth?” the letter suggested we ask ourselves. “Should we risk loss of control of our civilization?”

The Trump White House has issued an executive order directing “the development of an AI Action Plan to sustain and enhance America’s AI dominance, led by the Assistant to the President for Science & Technology, the White House AI & Crypto Czar, and the National Security Advisor.”​ ​

The United Nations, meanwhile, is calling for “a global approach” for governing AI; its goal is to have countries’ working together to develop an “understanding of its capabilities, opportunities, risks and uncertainties,” as noted in the organization’s September report, “Governing AI for Humanity.”​​ ​ 

​How to protect yourself from imposter scams​ ​Take a beat and check your emotions.

If you see a video, ad, or message that makes you excited or anxious (scammers want your emotions to ramp up and overwhelm your rational thinking), stop and take a breath. Does it make sense? Ask someone you trust for their thoughts if you’re not sure, and remember the old saying that if something sounds too good to be true, it almost surely is.  ​ 

​Avoid unsolicited calls, texts and emails. Because scammers often initiate contact by phone or text, one of the easiest ways to protect yourself from scams is to avoid answering calls or texts from unknown numbers (those not in your contact list).

​Guard your personal information. To avoid identity theft, be careful about disclosing your full name, home address, Social Security number, credit card and banking information, and other personal details. ​ 

​Think twice before clicking links in unsolicited texts or emails. Clicking the link could download malicious software (malware) to your computer, or lead you to some sort of scheme to get you to reveal personal information. Instead, go to the website independently by typing the URL into your browser — or use the company’s official app. ​ ​

Dig deeper. Don’t take an ad or any other unsolicited communication at face value, says BBB spokesperson Melanie McGovern: “Take that extra step to say, OK, does this website look real? Maybe doing a search would bring up one of the BBB Scam Tracker reports, or a Reddit thread where people are talking about [how it’s a scam].” ​ ​

Report scams. If you spot a scam or you’ve been a victim of one, report it to the police, as well as the FBI's Internet Crime Complaint Center at IC3.gov and the FTC at reportfraud.ftc.gov. The more information authorities have, the better they can identify patterns, link cases and ultimately catch the criminals.   ​ ​ ​