Jul 10 – Financial journalist and broadcaster Martin Lewis was recently impersonated in a deepfake video, which showed him promoting a fraudulent Quantum AI investment opportunity.
Lewis quickly took to the internet to explain that he was not behind the video. He also urged the government to take action to protect people from these types of scams.
“This is frightening, it’s the first deep fake video scam I’ve seen with me in it. Govt & regulators must step up to stop big tech publishing such dangerous fakes. People’ll lose money and it’ll ruin lives,” he wrote on Twitter.
Anthony Browne MP replied: “We knew this scary development was coming, and I am having urgent talks with industry about how we block it. AI makes it easier for scammers to identify victims and steal from them, but it is also a powerful weapon to stop the criminals.”
Impersonation scams
In the extremely convincing (and alarming) deepfake clip, Lewis is seen touting a fraudulent fund as one of the best investment opportunities available for U.K. investors.
The video shows Lewis sitting in his office, talking about an investment in what’s known as ‘Quantum AI,’ which was labeled as ‘Elon Musk’s new project.’ The scammers went so far as to add captioning with similar branding to ITV’s This Morning, a TV program on which Lewis regularly makes appearances.
The clip was so convincing that others are concerned that we’ll eventually reach a point where we cannot believe anything seen on the internet.
Meta’s response
A spokesperson for Meta – the parent company of Facebook and Instagram – said that “We don’t allow this kind of advert on our platforms.” Ultimately, the clip was removed by their teams, as were a series of copycat advertisements using the same imagery.
In addition, Meta contacted Twitter regarding the scam. The company inquired as to whether Elon Musk had any association with Quantum AI.
Further thoughts
More needs to be done in order to protect leaders, employees and the general public from deepfake scams. Get information here:
- New method detects deepfakes with 99% accuracy
- A deep-dive into the drama of deepfakes
- CEO Talk: Diving into disinformation, deepfakes and their threats/dangers
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