Polygon Founder Warns of Deepfake Scams Using His Likeness—’It’s Not Me, It’s a Scam’

Polygon’s co-founder blows the whistle on AI-generated deepfakes impersonating him to push fraudulent crypto schemes. The synthetic videos—polished enough to fool retail investors—promise ’guaranteed returns’ on MATIC while using his reputation as bait.

Scammers bypass verification: The deepfakes exploit YouTube and Twitter’s sluggish content moderation, splicing legitimate interview clips with scam wallet addresses. One fake livestream even used a doctored Bloomberg backdrop.

Crypto’s credibility crisis deepens: While blockchain transactions are immutable, the human layer remains hopelessly vulnerable. Another day, another scheme—but hey, at least the scammers are innovating faster than the SEC.

Victims acknowledge the incident as deepfake concerns grow

Meanwhile, some crypto founders who joined the call have also raised alarms about the risks of deepfake calls. Rabble co-founder Prasad Kaavya noted the deepfake avatars of Nailwal and others on the call looked very real, and the only reason he was suspicious was that he did not expect the call to be a team call.

He added that he knew Nailwal personally and that the Polygon co-founder does not join any random Zoom calls. Thus, he immediately closed the call and sent a Google Meet link to the person, leading them to delete the chat and block him. He said:

“Here’s the scary part: If I wasn’t personally connected to these people, I might have trusted the deepfake.”

Powerloom protocol co-founder Swaroop Hedge also confirmed that they got a similar message from the scammer, but he quickly caught the scam and did not join the video call.

Meanwhile, several crypto entrepreneurs have confirmed this attack’s prevalence, highlighting scammers’ increasing use of AI tools and fake video calls in recent months. Deepfake impersonations have targeted major crypto stakeholders and celebrities and led to the loss of over $200 million in 2025 Q1 alone.

Nailwal advises crypto users on security

With the incident showing the significant risks that crypto users face, Nailwal has advised followers against installing anything on their device when someone else initiates an interaction. This appears to be the easiest way for scammers to access users’ devices.

According to security researcher Tayvano, several scammer groups on Telegram use this method, and one such group has made over $50 million. She explained that attackers try to inject malware into user devices to steal their private data, such as private keys, telegram messages, and browser data.

Meanwhile, Nailwal added that the best thing for users is to have separate laptops to manage their crypto wallets and sign in and not use the laptop for any other purpose.

He said:

“These attacks keep getting more and more sophisticated, so the best approach is to keep a separate laptop for signing via your wallets only from that laptop and never do anything else on that wallet.”

He also noted that it has been impossible to get Telegram to act on this issue, even though it is prevalent on social messaging platforms.

As for users who joined the video call with the scammers, many of them confirmed that they had already formatted their computers as a precaution. There has been no report of the scammers being able to steal anyone’s funds.

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