Fraudsters created deep fakes to trick unsuspecting users, says Binance CEO

Binance’s Chief Communications Officer, Patrick Hillmann, revealed that scammers created a Deep Fake of his persona using AI to deceive people and cryptocurrency developers.

According to Hillmann, the goal was to mislead developers of cryptocurrency tokens and assets about listing on the leading cryptocurrency exchange, Binance.

“Over the past month, I have received several messages online thanking me for taking the time to meet with the project teams. The messages talked about possible opportunities to list your assets on Binance,” he said.

Binance and Deep Fake

However, once he started receiving the messages, the Binance CEO became suspicious of the content. He said his department is not responsible for listings on Binance, nor is he informed in advance of the supported cryptocurrencies.

“It was weird because I don’t do any oversight or have any insight into the Binance listings. So it wouldn’t make any sense for me to meet with any of those people,” he said.

According to the manager, hackers also used his interviews and television appearances to create a Deep Fake profile. The images were sophisticated enough to fool several members of the crypto community, he said.

"One of the few things that revealed the video was fake is my figure. I gained about 15 kilos during Covid," he said.

As Hillmann explained, the team has already tried to track down the scammers, but they have not been successful so far. As a precaution, he has warned all projects about the scam and referred the case to the authorities.

In addition to this latest incident, there has recently been an increase in hackers impersonating Binance employees and executives on social media platforms such as Twitter, LinkedIn, and Telegram. “Use the Binance Verify tool to verify that the account officially represents Binance. Also, report any suspicious activity or accounts to Binance Support,” Hillman said, adding:

“We are prepared to defend our users and our ecosystem. After all, we have the largest and most experienced cybersecurity team in the industry, complemented by leading investigators with experience from the FBI, the US Secret Service, the IRS, Europol, and other renowned agencies with a proven track record in combating cybercrime.”

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All content in this article is for informational purposes only and does not in any way serve as investment advice. Investing in cryptocurrencies, commodities and stocks is very risky and can lead to capital losses.