Australia’s corporate watchdog is sounding the alarm over increasingly sophisticated scams targeting investors which use modern video technology to impersonate well-known personalities to lure in victims. There has been a sharp rise in so-called “deep fake” videos across social media with scammers using the identities of celebrities and financial commentators to spruik fake investments platforms.
In one example, a legitimate looking Nine News segment shows presenter Deb Knight speak to finance editor Chris Kohler who touts a trading platform previously only available to millionaires. In another economist and Yahoo Finance contributor Stephen Koukoulas promises to share “a particularly interesting stock that is seriously undervalued right now” in a Whatsapp community.
The Australian Securities and Investment Commission (ASIC) says it has removed 19,400 online scams, including such deep fake videos, which is nearly three times as many as it removed the previous year.
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With stock markets hitting all time highs, authorities say scammers are increasingly exploiting a concept known as “social proof” by deliberately misusing images of trusted public figures to convince people to chase investment gains.
ASIC Chair Sarah Court says Aussies should be very skeptical if they ever see a well-known personality promoting such investment schemes or ideas.
“The presence of polished content, familiar branding or convincing testimonials does not mean an investment is legitimate,” she said.
“AI is making investment scams more convincing and harder to detect. A simple online search is not enough to verify whether an opportunity is legitimate.”
Multiple victims recently told Yahoo Finance how they lost their savings in a sophisticated “pump and dump” investment scam using the imagery from the Commonwealth Bank and the lender’s former investment guru Tom Piotrowski.
Kristy Holden, 56, lost $150,000 and is now living in her granddaughter’s bedroom after falling victim to the scam in December.
Another victim, Toni, who didn’t wish to share her surname, lost $320,000 to the scam after she got sucked in by a Facebook ad for the scheme in September.
“This has dramatically destroyed my life as I am 74, cannot work and now struggle to live on a pension,” she said.
The most used personalities in fake investment scams
According to Scamwatch, Aussies were fleeced out of about $7.4 million in scams using public figures, including politicians and well-known finance TV journalists.
