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I got scammed similarly (although $10, because I tested first), because 1. it was on YouTube, on a channel called "SpaceX" with verified logo 2. with hundreds of thousands of viewers live 3. with a believable speech from Mr. Musk standing next to its rockets (and knowing his interest in cryptocurrencies).

This happened as I was genuinely searching for the actual live stream of SpaceX.

I am ashamed, even more so because I even posted the live stream link on Hacker News (!). Fortunately it was flagged early and I apologized personally to dang.

This was a terrible experience for me, on many levels. I never thought I would fall in such a trap, being very aware of the tech, reading about similar stories etc.

I am flabbergasted that you both get scammed. I would understand if this was two years ago, but now? Do people really not know about these scams? I can already see down votes coming for victim blaming, but this is to me really shocking. Notice that there isn't "tell hn: don't get scammed by deep fake crypto Elon" because people who usually posts also consider this general knowledge. That's why it's so effective I guess. In a similar manner there will never be "tell hn: don't drink acid it will burn your intestines", the danger is so obvious that nobody feels the need to post it and because nobody is posting it, people get scammed. I don't know what is the solution to that. How should you tell people what everybody should be already knowing?

I remember being on a machining workshop and he was telling such an obvious things. Obvious things are obvious until they aren't, and then somebody gets hurt.

To be fair, if that was only $10 it's because it was more of a "let's see if that works". It was believable enough to try this out.

The point of my message was to "tell hn: it could happen to people in this community".

Hey it takes courage to admit to it. That’s admirable.

I am so deeply ashamed.

Yes, this is the exact same scam.

Yes, I've heard about these scams. I've made deepfakes myself in the past. I've openly mocked people who have fallen for these scams. But this was sophisticated. Perfectly timed, very convincing deepfake, popular YouTube channels showing this stream during the launch, as if it were legit. The website was branded as SpaceX (the domain was obviously not, but I wasn't vigilant in the exciting hullabaloo of the impending launch). The instructions to participate were clear and easy to use.

This. Dont be ashamed. Everyone can get scammed.

Reason people do is because we dont talk of risks often enough.

@knicholes & @pil0u - I am working on a system that would prevent this exact same scenario. I appreciate the docs write up, given that you were personally impacted by this and are passionate about it, I'd love to speak.

I feel like the scale at which this is happening cross-internet must be staggering but because this is small-scale and un-reportable theft - who would the average person even go to, if they willingly sent the money, and they'd also have to get over the embarrassment of having fallen for it.

What really got me thinking about the scale of this is watching the deepfake discussion at 1:51:46 in this video (at 1:52:00 he says his team spends 30% of their time sorting through deepfake ads, to the extent he had to hire someone whose exclusive job is to spot these scam videos and report them to FB etc):

https://youtu.be/JMYQmGfTltY?si=ntuDgXuhMYj2fh5z&t=6706

Yes, thanks OP for sharing. I check HN front page mostly everyday and had no clue such sophisticated scams existed (I pretty much don’t use social media).

It’s easy to think “eh, it will never happen to me” but hindsight is 20/20. I impulse-donated to things like Wikipedia in the past and I’m susceptible to FOMO as most people.