Prominent Australians are among those being misrepresented in “deepfake” online adverts that seek to scam people out of tens of thousands of dollars.
Altered images or videos of some of the nation’s wealthiest people – including Gina Rinehart, Andrew “Twiggy” Forrest and Dick Smith – and famous television hosts are used in online advertisements advocating “investment” programs responsible for stealing people’s savings. a life of hundreds of Australians, many of them elderly.
The scams, often said to involve cryptocurrencies, continue despite legal efforts undertaken by billionaires and celebrities, who are not associated with or even aware of the adverts.
Mrs. Rinehart said so Nine newspapers that there was no legal mechanism through which scam victims could recover funds lost due to scams on Facebook, owned by Mark Zuckerberg’s Meta company.
“The Meta team appears to be taking its time removing scams, meaning some innocent people have been left thinking they are legitimate after seeing them online for weeks,” he said.
“It is tragic that people lose their savings in this way because Meta is not willing to act responsibly and promptly.”
In the absence of stronger global laws to protect against such scams, an individual’s best defense is vigilance.
