Fraudsters used AI-generated deepfake videos and audio to impersonate Namibia's former First Lady Monica Geingos, convincing victims to invest in fake forex schemes, resulting in significant financial losses including one woman losing her retirement savings.
Fraudsters created AI-manipulated videos and audio content impersonating Namibia's former First Lady Monica Geingos to conduct investment scams targeting Namibian citizens. The deepfakes used genuine footage of Mrs Geingos speaking dubbed with AI-generated voice that sounded like hers, promoting fraudulent foreign exchange (forex) investment schemes. The scam has been operating for almost two years but intensified over the past two months. Multiple fake social media accounts on TikTok, Instagram and X were created using her profile image and similar handles to her name. Victims were contacted directly, including through video calls purporting to show Mrs Geingos convincing them to invest. The bank account details and phone numbers provided were all Namibian. Multiple victims have been defrauded of large amounts, including one woman who lost her entire retirement savings. Mrs Geingos' office has been inundated with messages from fraud victims. The former first lady released a public video warning in January 2025 urging people not to communicate with fake accounts and to report them. Similar deepfake scams have targeted other high-profile figures across Africa including South African President Cyril Ramaphosa and businessmen Johann Rupert and Patrice Motsepe.
Domain classification, causal taxonomy, severity scores, and national security assessments were LLM-classified and may contain errors.
Using AI systems to gain a personal advantage over others such as through cheating, fraud, scams, blackmail or targeted manipulation of beliefs or behavior. Examples include AI-facilitated plagiarism for research or education, impersonating a trusted or fake individual for illegitimate financial benefit, or creating humiliating or sexual imagery.
Human
Due to a decision or action made by humans
Intentional
Due to an expected outcome from pursuing a goal
Post-deployment
Occurring after the AI model has been trained and deployed