Crooks are circulating AI-generated deepfake videos of Prince William and UK prime minister Keir Starmer on Facebook and Instagram to dupe viewers into scam cryptocurrency investments.
Researchers at Fenimore Harper have dug up more than 250 adverts using deepfakes of Starmer on Meta platforms since the UK election last month.
The ads promote a scam crypto trading platform called "Immediate Edge" that promises to create daily earnings of £1000.
Says the fake Starmer in one: “Your life is about to change. I am Keir Starmer, prime minister of the United Kingdom and leader of the Labour Party. I have been waiting for you. Today is your lucky day. I don't know how you found this page, but you won't regret it.”
Another ad, sees a fake Prince William declare: "Good afternoon, honoured citizens of the United Kingdom. I am pleased to announce that I, Prince William, and the entire Royal Family fully support Prime Minister Keir Starmer's initiative and his new platform."
People that click on the ads are taken to a landing page and asked to enter their names, phone numbers and email addresses. This information is then used to contact the victims and encourage them to deposit money into the bogus trading platform.
Research from Santander published this week shows that over half of Brits (53%) have either not heard of the term deepfake, or misunderstood what it meant, with just 17% of people confident they could easily identify a deepfake video.
The bank has launched a campaign to demonstrate the threat, creating its own deepfake videos of 'finfluencer' Mr Money Jar and Santander fraud lead Chris Ainsley, to show just how realistic deepfakes already are, and how Brits can best protect themselves.