Scammers used deepfake technology to impersonate New Zealand business leaders in social media advertisements, luring investors into WhatsApp groups where they were manipulated into participating in pump and dump schemes that resulted in significant financial losses.
The Financial Markets Authority (FMA) of New Zealand reported a sophisticated scam operation using deepfake technology to impersonate well-known Kiwi business leaders in Facebook and Instagram advertisements. The scam involved creating fake social media ads featuring these impersonated leaders to encourage investors to join WhatsApp investment chat groups. Within these groups, scammers posed as 'investment mentors' and used bot accounts to create the illusion of legitimate investment communities with dozens of members. The scammers initially recommended shares in well-known companies like Nvidia or Tesla to build trust, then gradually steered victims toward smaller company shares listed on overseas exchanges including NASDAQ. Over weeks or months, the coordinated buying artificially inflated share prices in classic pump and dump schemes, after which scammers sold their holdings at inflated prices while victims suffered losses when prices collapsed. The FMA reported receiving multiple complaints with victims losing 'significant amounts' and noted this was likely 'only the tip of the iceberg.' After initial losses, scammers often contacted victims claiming they were entitled to compensation, then harvested additional personal information and payments through recovery scams. The FMA issued warnings on August 19, 2025, and coordinated with overseas regulators as the schemes targeted shares on US exchanges and involved companies based in China.
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.
AI system
Due to a decision or action made by an AI system
Intentional
Due to an expected outcome from pursuing a goal
Post-deployment
Occurring after the AI model has been trained and deployed