Australia’s shopper watchdog is warning the general public to beware of faux news articles and deepfake movies of celebrities and different public figures that endorse and hyperlink to on-line funding buying and selling platforms.
Australians misplaced greater than $8 million to scams linked to on-line funding buying and selling platforms largely marketed on social media.
Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) deputy chair Catriona Lowe stated there have been 400 stories made to Scamwatch within the final yr alone.
“We are urging Australians to take their time and do their research before taking up an investment opportunity – particularly those seen on social media,” Lowe stated.
“We know of an Australian man who lost $80,000 in cryptocurrency after seeing a deepfake Elon Musk video interview on social media, clicking the link and registering his details through an online form.
“He was supplied with an account supervisor and a web based dashboard the place he may see his funding supposedly making big returns.
“But when he tried to withdraw the money – he was locked out of his account.”
Can you inform the distinction between an actual picture and an AI-generated one?
International scammers have been creating faux news articles and deepfake movies to persuade folks that celebrities and well-known public figures are making big sums of cash utilizing on-line funding buying and selling platforms.
The movies flow into broadly on social media and different video-sharing platforms.
Many of them declare that the web buying and selling platform makes use of synthetic intelligence or different rising applied sciences equivalent to quantum computing to generate excessive returns for buyers.
Reports to Scamwatch point out probably the most prolific on-line funding buying and selling platform rip-off seems below the model Quantum AI.
Others embody Immediate Edge, Immediate Connect, Immediate X3, and Quantum Trade Wave.
The National Anti-Scam Centre’s funding rip-off fusion cell, co-led by the ACCC and ASIC, has been lively in disrupting funding scams equivalent to on-line funding buying and selling platform scams.
“In addition to referring these scam ads to social media platforms for removal, the fusion cell has developed a trial method for blocking payments to these scams,” Lowe stated.
“It has been encouraging to see an overall downward trend in losses reported to Scamwatch to investment scams since the establishment of the fusion cell in July 2023.
“The ACCC and ASIC will proceed to work collectively as a part of the National Anti-Scam Centre’s efforts to cease scammers from harming Australians.”
Source: www.9news.com.au
