Southeast Asia Becomes Crypto Crime Hotspot

One case highlighted is Huione Guarantee (now rebranded as Haowang), a Chinese-language platform operating out of Phnom Penh, Cambodia. Over the past four years, it has facilitated over $24 billion in crypto linked to fraud and scam operations, growing to over 970,000 users.

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The platform has launched its own crypto exchange, blockchain (Xone Chain), online gambling services, and even a US dollar-backed stablecoin aimed at bypassing government oversight. In February 2025, the group unveiled a Huione Visa card.

Billions Of Dollars Laundered Through Custom Coins And Exchanges!

The report warns that criminal groups in Myanmar, Laos, and Cambodia are industrializing cybercrime with AI, blockchain, and stablecoins, executing phishing, fake investments, and romance scams — collectively known as pig butchering — on a massive scale.

Recent crackdowns in Hong Kong, Nigeria, and other countries have led to hundreds of arrests. In October 2024, 27 people were arrested in Hong Kong for running a deepfake-powered crypto scam worth $46 million. In December, 792 suspects were caught in Lagos, Nigeria.

The UN warns these groups are leveraging their own stablecoins and private exchanges to circumvent AML laws and move funds freely across borders. The threat is growing beyond Asia — into Africa, South America, and the Pacific.

Governments are urged to close loopholes and prepare for this expanding form of financial crime.

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Claiming Apple would give twice the amount back, an artificial intelligence created by Cook requested viewers in one of the Sept. 9 scam videos posted on X to contribute Bitcoin, Ether, Tether, or Dogecoin to a “contribution address.”

The AI-generated Cook advised: “Once you complete your deposit, the system will automatically process it and send back double the amount of the cryptocurrency you deposited.”

Promising to send back double the amount of any cryptocurrency provided to an address, the videos are a typical “double your money” hoax whereby the crooks keep the money instead of promised.

Apple’s Sept. 9 “Glowtime” event, which it aired on YouTube and revealed its new iPhone 16 models, coincided with the fraud livestreams. One fraud feed appeared on a YouTube channel under the name “Apple US,” replete with a real verification tick.

Shared to X, videos and pictures indicate several fake streams gathered hundreds of thousands of viewers; most of these were probably bots trying to give the stream credibility.

In a Sept. 9 X post, YouTube’s support crew admitted the fraud and urged viewers to use the official complaint method to document the video. The bogus videos are no more accessible, and the related accounts have closed. Increasingly well-known people and events are the focus of fraudsters using deepfake technology to fool consumers.

Major Australian network Seven’s YouTube news feed was hacked in June by crypto fraudsters uploading footage of a deep fake Elon Musk discussing cryptocurrencies.

Around the same time as SpaceX’s Starship Rocket’s newest launch, YouTube was inundated with deepfake versions of Musk soliciting fans to fund a bogus double-your-money scheme. Issues with AI-generated content have grown significantly within the past few years. In the 2024 edition of its “Global Risks Report,” the World Economic Forum underlined every potential negative result of artificial intelligence technologies.

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Lingo Telecom Fined by FCC for DeepFake

The FCC’s action against Lingo Telecom requires not only a fine, but also the implementation of a “historical compliance plan,” which requires strict adherence to caller ID verification rules and “Know Your Customer” and “Know Your Upstream Provider” policies, allowing for better monitoring and verification of call traffic.

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Deepfake bot calls orchestrated by political consultant Steve Kramer, who worked for rival candidate Dean Phillips, were aimed at manipulating voters and disrupting the democratic process. Kramer’s indictment in May highlights the serious consequences of using AI-powered deepfakes in election interference, raising concerns about the growing threat of disinformation in future elections.

This case underscores the need for robust regulatory measures and public awareness to protect democratic processes from the misuse of new technologies.

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Alleged to have broken California and U.S. laws against deepfake pornography, revenge porn, and material on child sexual abuse, the case, filed in San Francisco’s Superior Court, claims that the site owners—based in Los Angeles, New Mexico, the United Kingdom, and Estonia—have Alone in the first half of 2024, the websites under issue had accumulated 200 million visitors overall.

A Growing Threat Exploiting AI Technology

According to the lawsuit, users of these artificial intelligence models may upload photographs and create stunningly realistic nude images by learning illicit content like pornography and information on child sexual abuse. While some websites claim their products are just for adults, others reportedly allow the creation of images containing children. Using the created photographs, women and girls who have little to no control over the circulation of these bogus photos have been extorted, tormented, and humiliated.

Chiu emphasized the severe repercussions of this mistreatment, drawing on a recent incident in February involving a California middle school distributing sexual images produced by artificial intelligence of sixteen eighth-graders. Similarly, in June an Australian kid was arrested for allegedly spreading 50 AI-generated images of youngsters from a Melbourne-area school.

“This study has taken us to the darkest corners of the internet, and I am absolutely horrified for the women and girls who have had to suffer this exploitation” Chiu added. Underlining the urgency of stopping wicked actors using artificial intelligence to exploit real people, particularly kids, he stressed that such behaviors reflect sexual abuse rather than creativity.

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About 150,000 people were seeing three livestreams including the phoney Musk at the time of the event. How many of these viewers were actual vs bots used to increase audience count is yet unknown. The stolen channel still showed the verification tick for the 7News YouTube channel even after connections to it were severed.

Response and Investigation by Seven Network

A Seven Network spokesman informed The Sydney Morning Herald that the firm knew of the unusual behavior on certain of its YouTube channels. “Seven is investigating and working with YouTube to rectify the matter as quickly as possible,” the spokesman stated.

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With the stated addresses containing just over $11,000 in total, the crooks’ website sought numerous cryptocurrencies, including Bitcoin, Ether, Solana, and Dogecoin.

Scammers’ Use of Musk’s Image

Frequent targets for fraudsters using Elon Musk’s image to give their operations legitimacy include More than thirty-five YouTube livestreams of bogus Musks pushing related frauds earlier this month aligned with SpaceX’s Starship rocket launch. Recently, Hong Kong’s securities regulator closed a company claiming to have created the technology for AI crypto trading using AI-faked footage of Musk on its social media profiles and website, thereby misrepresenting him.

Incident Timing and Broader Context

The assault on 7News’ YouTube account happened the same week that The Sydney Morning Herald and The Australian announced on June 24 that Seven West Media, the parent company of Seven Network, will lose 150 positions, including those in marketing roles.

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Meta Faces Legal Challenge Over Responsibility for Scam Ads

Meta claimed that Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act released them from liability as a distributor of outside materials. Like one previously used by YouTube to evade responsibility for crypto scam advertisements, this argument depends on the statute declaring that a supplier of an “interactive computer service” won’t be considered “as the publisher […] of any information provided.” Judge Pitts concluded, however, that Meta had not “established beyond dispute” that Section 230 gave it “an airtight affirmative defense” for all of Forrest’s claims.

Forrest told The Australian, “It marks the first time in the U.S. civil court that a social media company has failed to succeed in using Section 230 immunity as a defense against civil liability for the conduct of its advertising business.” “The decision means we can seek to prove in court that Facebook can and should prevent displaying false ads on its site while rejecting any responsibility,” he said.

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According to Judge Pitts’ ruling, Forrest’s revised case might attempt to show that Meta stole his name and image in addition to the fraudsters running the false advertising. Forrest argues that this misuse was to Meta’s advantage, as she benefited more from commercials including his image than from those without. Judge Pitts pointed out that Forrest “plausibly claimed that Meta actively participated in producing the ads at issue.”

According to Forrest’s accusations, Meta used its advertising capabilities to “actively participate” in how the advertisements looked and who they featured. Judge Pitts said: “These allegations present a factual dispute regarding whether Meta’s ad systems were neutral tools that anyone could use (or misuse) or whether the tools themselves contributed to the content of the ads.”

Citing inadequate proof, Australian authorities decided in April to suspend investigating Forrest’s criminal allegations against Meta in Australia over the false crypto scam advertisements.

Forbes puts the 62-year-old iron ore miner Fortescue Metals Group’s net worth at $16.6 billion. As Forrest’s action against Meta develops, it might create a major precedent for social media companies’ obligations to stop and handle false advertising.

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An organization calling itself Quantum AI or AI Quantum used deepfake videos of famous entrepreneur Elon Musk to trick people into thinking he was the platform’s creator, according to the commission.

Make no mistake: this is not the same as NASA’s Quantum AI Lab (QuAIL), which is involved in quantum computing research but has nothing to do with the deceitful endeavors at hand. Scammers are using deepfakes more and more to trick people out of their money, taking advantage of the fast development of AI.

Deepfakes are videos or audio clips that use artificial intelligence algorithms to realistically imitate the voice and facial expressions of a specific person. Scammers use deepfakes to set up video chats with unsuspecting victims; these calls allow the imposter to change their look and assume the victim’s identity.

“The Yahoo Boys” are an infamous Nigerian organization that has been using deepfakes to pull off romance frauds. The defendants in this case were a Hong Kong-based organization that advertised AI-powered cryptocurrency trading services.

The organization may have been a front for fraudulent virtual asset activities, nevertheless, according to the police. Officials issued a warning after discovering the organization had used three websites and two Facebook accounts to conduct cryptocurrency scams.

The con artists used Elon Musk’s deepfake videos to make their scheme more legitimate by making him look like the technology’s creator. They went to extreme lengths, such as making a fake “news” website, to spread false information about their services and trick potential victims even more.

The Hong Kong police wasted no time in taking action, blocking the group’s online presence but how much harm the swindle actually did is anybody’s guess.

Deepfake Scams Target Crypto Investors

Scammers have used deepfakes starring Elon Musk to pull off similar frauds before. In a different incident that occurred in April, con artists posing as Musk on Instagram stole $50,000 from a South Korean woman.

The deepfake Musk even embarked on a video call with the woman, and the imposter showed affection during the session. “When we made a video call, Musk even said ‘I love you, you know that?'” the victim explained—as she told 60 Minutes.

According to reports, Singapore’s prime minister Lee Hsien Loong has also sent a warning to his social media followers about deepfake videos that pose as him and encourage cryptocurrency frauds.

Scammers had devised a fake “hands-free crypto trading” scheme, and Loong had even published an example video of themselves being interviewed to promote it.

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