Elon Musk Impersonator Cons Chinese Fans At New York Event Who Showed Up To Meet The Real Deal

An Elon Musk impersonator conned several Chinese fans at a New York event recently, who had shown up in multitudes to meet the tech genius. They were left disappointed and enraged over finding out the truth.

Reports from Insider mention that the impersonator made a grand entry with bodyguards surrounding him. This person was observed holding several awards amid what appears to be a massive crowd, which in reality was meant for the real Elon Musk and not him. After people who closely interacted with the conman realized the obvious difference in appearance and the sound of his voice, the fracas was over and he absconded from the site.

An attendee named Gao Wei Wei posted a video of the whole ordeal on the Chinese-exclusive platform Weibo, which featured a video of herself amid a massive crowd. The fans are seen being ushered to the hall where the con artist was present and people snapping pictures and getting a video shot with the impersonator. Gao even expressed her excitement on the matter and said, "Never in our wildest dream did we think it was a fake Musk." However, after she met him in person, she was taken aback at the dawning realization. She said, "Hey, that doesn't look like Musk. I just thought that maybe he looks a little different in real life."

Gary Kong, the president of the Sino-American Association located in Flushing, New York, reportedly promised Elon Musk to grace the event to celebrate his publication in the Wall Street Magazine. However, during the event, fans were left frustrated and disappointed after they had to wait for nearly an hour and a half just for a replica to show up.

According to SCMP, Kong denied any such promises and claimed that he clearly mentioned that Elon Musk would merely be the main face of his newest publication at the launch and it didn't insinuate that the SpaceX CEO would grace the event itself.

However, reports further revealed that a copy of the invitation mentions the contrary. "The main committee has invited many entrepreneurs and Elon Musk. Elon Musk is the CEO & CTO of SpaceX, CEO of Tesla, and the chairman of the board of directors of SolarCity." No official comment has been obtained regarding confirmation of the invite claims from either Kong or Gao, nor has the true identity of the impersonator been revealed.

New York Times reported that the tech mogul and billionaire recently took to Twitter after he announced his role switch from CEO to CTO and exec chair. Musk mentioned that he reportedly hired a new CEO, Linda Yaccarino, to take up his current role while he will manage product overseeing, software and sysops (system operations).