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The Securities and Trade Fee (SEC) warned the general public in opposition to fraudulent cryptocurrency funding schemes promoted by means of deepfake movies and audio recordings that includes distinguished businessman Lance Gokongwei.
Utilization of Lance Gokongwei Deepfake for Crypto Scams
In an advisory, the SEC’s Enforcement and Investor Safety Division acknowledged that scammers have been utilizing AI-generated content material to falsely painting the president and CEO of JG Summit Holdings Inc., and different well-known personalities endorsing cryptocurrency, foreign exchange, and different digital asset investments.
The Fee added that these manipulated supplies are being broadly circulated on social media to trick people into investing in faux or unlawful cryptocurrency ventures.
As well as, the SEC mentioned victims are misled into registering on a buying and selling platform based mostly in Nicosia, Cyprus, the place they’re requested to offer bank card data and one-time passwords. As soon as they enter these particulars, victims reportedly lose contact with the platform and are unable to retrieve their funds.
“Consequently, the general public is warned to keep away from interacting with suspicious commercials, web sites, or social media accounts that declare to supply funding alternatives endorsed by common personalities. To be safe, at all times test with the SEC to verify the legitimacy of the providing, the offeree, and the safety or funding product being supplied.”
Securities and Trade Fee
In a separate advisory, the Gokongwei Group issued a warning to the general public in opposition to more and more subtle funding scams that falsely use endorsements from well-known personalities, together with by means of AI-generated deepfakes.
“We’re reissuing this advisory to warn the general public anew to chorus from participating in any content material that makes use of the picture or likeness of JG Summit President and CEO Lance Gokongwei to advertise funding alternatives. Mr. Gokongwei isn’t in any approach linked with nor endorsing these funding alternatives.”
Gokongwei Group
The group urges vigilance when interacting with web sites, social media accounts, and hyperlinks, and advises reporting suspicious advertisements to Meta.
Gokongwei is a distinguished Filipino businessman. He’s the one son of the late tycoon John Gokongwei Jr., founding father of one of many Philippines’ largest conglomerates and is thought for increasing the household’s enterprise throughout aviation, retail, meals, power, and telecom.
The Gokongwei household owns main corporations together with JG Summit Holdings, Common Robina Company, Robinsons Retail Holdings, Robinsons Land Company, Cebu Pacific, GoTyme Financial institution, JG Summit Olefins, Meralco, DHL Summit Options, Information Analytics Ventures, and Singapore Land Group.
To report scams involving deepfake crypto promotions or for additional inquiries, the SEC encourages the general public to contact its Enforcement and Investor Safety Division at (02) 8818-7650 or (02) 8818-6047, or electronic mail [email protected].
What’s a Deepfake?
A deepfake is artificial media generated utilizing synthetic intelligence and machine studying to change or fabricate faces, voices, or actions in movies, photos, or audio recordings.
This expertise can convincingly depict folks saying or doing issues they by no means truly did. As deepfakes turn out to be extra superior, they pose severe challenges to figuring out actual content material, making fact-checking and media literacy essential in combating misinformation.
Rise of Deepfake Movies Utilized in Crypto Scams
In March, a deepfake video falsely claiming that President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. blocked a cryptocurrency platform linked to Elon Musk circulated on Fb, utilizing AI-manipulated footage to advertise a fraudulent funding scheme.
- The video, styled to resemble an ABS-CBN Information Patrol broadcast, alleged that the Philippine authorities was hiding Musk’s platform, which might supposedly make Filipinos earn tens of millions with a ₱15,000 deposit.
- Truth-checked by PressOne.PH, the video was confirmed faux, with authentic clips taken from unrelated occasions involving each Musk and Marcos Jr., neither of whom talked about cryptocurrency or authorities restrictions.
Accordingly, the 2025 Anti-Scam Research Report by Bitget, SlowMist, and Elliptic revealed that the usage of AI-generated deepfakes in cryptocurrency scams surged in 2024, contributing to $4.6 billion in losses, marking a 24% enhance from the earlier yr.
- The report famous that almost 40% of high-value frauds concerned deepfakes, which are actually generally used to advertise faux funding schemes, fraudulent tokens, and even bypass identification verification on main platforms.
- Scammers are disguising basic pyramid and Ponzi schemes as DeFi, NFT, or GameFi initiatives, enhanced with convincing visuals like AI-generated staff profiles and pretend KYC paperwork.
- Furthermore, the information highlighted that at the very least 87 deepfake rip-off rings had been dismantled throughout Asia within the first quarter of 2025.
This text is printed on BitPinas: SEC Warns Public of Crypto Scams Using Deepfake Videos of Lance Gokongwei
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