The frightening face of artificial intelligence: Deepfake: They perfectly imitate famous people and commit hundreds of thousands of dollars in fraud

It has been observed that fraud has entered a new phase recently with artificial intelligence video generation and voice manipulation systems.

While these systems are used to steal individuals' bank information and investments, criminals trap their victims through a method called "deepfake," which involves manipulated audio and images.

While these systems are used to steal individuals' bank information and investments, criminals trap their victims through a method called "deepfake," which involves manipulated audio and images.

Through these fake videos, in which famous figures offer "radical investment opportunities promising quick returns" and discuss the economy, people are urged to invest in non-existent companies.

Via these videos, targeted individuals are requested to send money to specific accounts to benefit from the investments in question, with the promise that they will earn more than the amount they sent in return.

Videos that can be created with very low budgets are prepared in minutes and can be published as advertisements on popular applications such as Facebook and YouTube.

In these images, where the accents of famous people can be imitated, fake graphics and news site logos can also be used to mislead people.

It is stated that with more than 2 thousand detected "deepfake" videos, Musk is the most preferred person in the fraud method in question.

Meanwhile, experts state that while "deepfake" videos are not "completely perfect," they are improving day by day and becoming more convincing.

Speaking to The New York Times, Lou Steinberg, founder of the cybersecurity firm CTM Insights, notes that as organized crime groups realize they can misuse this technology for their own purposes, the number of those resorting to this method will increase over time.

According to a report by The New York Times, 82-year-old retiree Steve Beauchamp is one of the victims of "deepfake" fraud. In 2023, Beauchamp lost most of his investments after being deceived by a "deepfake" Elon Musk advertisement.

Beauchamp stated that he sent approximately 690 thousand dollars to scammers after watching a video in which Musk spoke about a high-return investment opportunity.

Steve Beauchamp expressed his regret for not notifying the police in time, noting that he believed the person in the video he watched was truly Musk.

Among those defrauded by this method are employees of multinational companies.

Nature's report also featured the stories of South African urologist Kgomotso Mathabe and Indian doctor Viswanathan Mohan.

Mathabe realized that images of her created using the "deepfake" method were being used in an online advertisement after being harassed by numerous victims of the scam.

Stating that a new drug was being promoted in the advertisement using her own image, Mathabe said that viewers were being directed to a site where their account information was stolen.

Indian doctor Viswanathan Mohan discovered that his face was being used in a video created online to feature him giving expert advice in a language he does not know, in order to scam people.

Mohan noted that this footage not only constitutes character assassination but also creates legal problems.

The New York Times reported that Australian mining billionaire Andrew Forrest, whose face was also used in the advertisements in question, has filed a complaint against Meta, the owner of Facebook, Instagram, and WhatsApp.

In response to Forrest, who stated that fake advertisements on Facebook lure "innocent users into bad investments," the company explained that it is "training automated detection systems to catch fraud on its platform."

YouTube, another platform where "deepfakes" are prevalent, announced that it has removed more than 15.7 million channels and more than 8.2 million videos for violating its policies.

The company also made it mandatory for content creators to disclose when they use artificial intelligence to create realistic content.