- Specialists issue alerts over fabricated celebrity clips
A present day scam operation is attempting to deceive unsuspicious individuals out of their funds using deceptive ad videos, according to cybersecurity provider Eset from Europe. These videos give the false impression that prominent figures like CDU chairman Friedrich Merz, SAP co-founder Dietmar Hopp, or ARD's TV experts are endorsing groundbreaking financial investments with extraordinary earnings potential. In the manipulated video images, large income is assured with minimal investment.
The perpetrators, believed to be from Russia or Ukraine, utilize authentic news segments as a foundation for their fake videos. They teach their AI software with this data to produce a new segment. The speakers in the deepfake videos promote a questionable investment platform called Immediate Matrix.
German consumers are the main focus
As per Eset, the fake videos have been circulating since May, with German consumers currently being the primary target. Variations of the deepfakes are also targeting consumers in other countries, including Canada, Japan, South Africa, and the Netherlands.
"Politicians and other public figures are a gold mine for AI scammers," said Eset researcher Ondrej Novotny, who played a part in uncovering the campaign. "There's a treasure trove of images, videos, and audio recordings of them that they can use to feed their AI tools. The outcome: A well-known figure offers a seemingly serious advice on how to invest your money."
Eset strongly advises against being drawn into the supposedly rewarding investment opportunities. "If users fall for it and invest, their money is gone." In other countries where the campaign has been active, victims have even been contacted by the perpetrators to intimidate and pressurize them into larger investments.
How to identify deepfakes
"The deepfakes in this campaign are often of poor quality and lack proper lip-syncing," said Eset expert Novotny. "But that doesn't stop scammers because they only need a small fraction of recipients to fall for it and transfer the requested amount. It's easy money with minimal investment on the criminals' part."
The European Union has expressed concern over the increasing use of deepfake technology in scam operations, as the fake videos have also been targeting consumers in countries like the Netherlands, which is a member of the EU. Eset, a cybersecurity provider based in the EU, has been actively working to combat this issue.
