Santander has launched a campaign to demonstrate the threat to consumers from 'deepfake' videos circulating on social media platforms.
As part of the initiative, Santander has created 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.
New research from Santander shows 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.
In May lasy year, a customer of Santander Bank had £60,000 scammed from her account after transferring funds to a criminal impersonating the bank's head of fraud, Chris Ainsley. Although this was a classic old-school impersonation scam, Ainsley believes the arrival of deepfake video software poses a bigger threat to unwary customers.
“Generative AI is developing at breakneck speed, and we know it’s ‘when’ rather than ‘if’ we start to see an influx of scams with deepfakes lurking behind them," he says. "We already know fraudsters flood social media with fake investment opportunities and bogus love interests, and unfortunately, it’s highly likely that deepfakes will begin to be used to create even more convincing scams of these types."
“More than ever, be on your guard and just because something might appear legitimate at first sight - doesn’t mean it is. Look out for those telltale signs and if something - or someone - appears too good to be true, it’s probably just that.”
Santander's initiative comes as financial regulators in New Zeland report a surge in complaints from consumers tricked into clicking on fake advertisements featuring 'celebrity endorsements' – some of which use deepfake videos of New Zealand political leaders.