Des vidéos hypertrucées générées par IA d'Elon Musk et de Dans l'œil du dragon utilisées dans une fraude crypto de 2,3 M$ ciblant des Canadiens

In July 2023, a 51-year-old woman in Markham, Ontario saw a deepfake video on Facebook featuring a synthetic likeness and altered voice of Elon Musk, claiming viewers could “make money daily” investing in his cryptocurrency platform. She made an initial $250 e-transfer and was shown fabricated profits of US$30 within two days — establishing false credibility. Over the following months, she took out a $1 million second mortgage, made transfers of $300,000-$350,000 at a time, and watched a fake dashboard show her account growing past $3 million. When she attempted to withdraw, scammers demanded she pay “taxes and fees” first. She borrowed an additional $500,000 from family and friends to pay these fees. She lost $1.7 million total — her entire retirement savings and home equity.

Separately, Donald Hanrahan of Charlottetown, Prince Edward Island saw a Facebook Story appearing to be endorsed by Dragon’s Den. Starting with small amounts, he escalated to investing $10,000 per day. His fake dashboard showed his investment growing past $1 million. He lost his entire $600,000 life savings.

A W5 investigation aired December 19, 2025 traced many of the scam operations to criminal compounds in Southeast Asia — including more than 35 buildings in one Philippines location “designed for the sole purpose of scamming,” with many operators themselves trafficking victims forced to make calls 16 hours per day. Former US prosecutor Erin West criticized Meta directly, stating the platform is “enabling these bad actors to reach their prey.” Meta did not provide a public response specific to the Canadian cases documented in this report.

The Canadian Anti-Fraud Centre reported $103 million lost specifically to crypto investment scams in 2025 and $420 million to investment fraud overall — a 15% increase from 2024. Dragon’s Den and CBC had posted warnings about fake Facebook ads impersonating the show as early as April 2020, but the advent of deepfake video has made these scams substantially more convincing.