Scammers used AI-generated deepfake videos of political figures including President Trump, senators, and White House officials to promote fake government benefits and stimulus checks in Facebook ads, with Meta earning approximately $49 million from these fraudulent advertisements.
Between 2018 and 2025, scammers created AI-generated deepfake videos of prominent political figures including President Trump, senators Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren, Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, and White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt to promote fraudulent government benefits and stimulus checks on Facebook and Instagram. The Tech Transparency Project identified 63 scam advertisers who collectively spent $49 million on over 150,000 political ads on Meta platforms. These deepfake ads falsely promised $5,000 stimulus checks, government spending cards, and Medicare benefits that did not exist. The ads primarily targeted seniors and conservative users, using urgent language and fake deadlines to pressure victims into providing personal information and credit card details. Meta's advertising approval process, which requires special authorization for political ads, failed to detect these scams despite having explicit policies against impersonations and deceptive practices. While Meta eventually removed some ads and suspended some accounts for violating its policies, many scammers were allowed to continue advertising for weeks or months, with some spending over $1 million before being disabled. The scams often led to unwanted subscription charges and financial losses for victims, particularly elderly Americans.
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