Deepfake technology was used to create fraudulent videos of Singapore's Senior Minister Lee Hsien Loong promoting investment scams, with scammers using AI to mimic his voice and synchronize mouth movements over real footage.
In June 2024, deepfake videos circulated online featuring Singapore's Senior Minister Lee Hsien Loong appearing to promote investment products with guaranteed returns. The scammers used artificial intelligence and deepfake technology to mimic SM Lee's voice and layered the fake audio over actual footage from his 2023 National Day message, synchronizing his mouth movements with the fraudulent audio. SM Lee warned the public via Facebook that the video was not real and urged Singaporeans not to believe scam advertisements featuring him or other public office holders promoting investment products. He noted that AI and deepfake technology are becoming increasingly sophisticated and expressed concern that people could be fooled into believing he actually made those statements. This was not the first occurrence, as a similar deepfake video had circulated in December 2023 showing him advocating for a cryptocurrency scheme. The government provided a ScamShield Bot on WhatsApp for users to report such fraudulent content.
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