Malicious actors created hundreds of deepfake videos impersonating political figures like Rishi Sunak, Elon Musk, and other celebrities to promote investment scams called Quantum AI across multiple social media platforms, reaching potentially millions of people worldwide.
Between 2022 and 2024, malicious actors created and distributed hundreds of deepfake videos featuring political figures including UK Prime Minister Rishi Sunak, Labour leader Keir Starmer, and celebrities like Elon Musk to promote fraudulent investment schemes primarily branded as 'Quantum AI.' Over 143 deepfake advertisements impersonating Rishi Sunak alone were promoted on Facebook in one month, reaching up to 400,000 people and costing scammers over £12,929. The deepfakes were created using AI voice cloning and lip-syncing technology applied to authentic footage, making them appear genuine. The scam operated across multiple countries including the US, Turkey, Malaysia, Philippines, and throughout Europe, with videos tailored to different languages and local political figures. Victims were directed to fake news websites mimicking legitimate outlets like BBC News, then prompted to provide contact information for supposed investment opportunities requiring minimum deposits of $250-400. Multiple individuals reported losing money, with one Australian man losing over $72,000 and others losing hundreds to thousands of dollars. The campaigns used shared video hosting infrastructure and appeared to originate from a single threat actor group. Despite platform policies prohibiting such content, the videos continued to spread across Facebook, Instagram, YouTube, TikTok, and X (Twitter), with Meta removing violating ads only after they had already reached substantial audiences.
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