Local banking giants have flagged 32,000 examples of dangerous internet content, including a growing number of deepfake investment scams with Meta and telecoms providers, revealing the extent of the clean-up job required before new scam response laws come into force next year.
Content generated by artificial intelligence is being used to swindle customers by impersonating prominent business people and brands, The Australian Financial Review Cyber Summit heard, and it is getting more difficult to distinguish between real and fake as the technology improves.
James Roberts, executive general manager of fraud and scams at Commonwealth Bank, said one-third of people had been presented with a deepfake scam in the past year, mostly investment scams on social media.
The technique typically impersonates trusted people, and he said the “singularity” had arrived, where “you can actually no longer differentiate between a good one and genuine digital content”.
The corporate regulator and National Anti-Scam Centre said last month the most impersonated figures by deepfake scammers include Prime Minister Anthony Albanese, mining magnate Gina Rinehart, television personality Alan Kohler and high-profile economists Stephen Koukoulas and Alan Oster.
CBA chief executive Matt Comyn has also been impersonated. In a video posted on Meta’s Facebook and Instagram platforms in 2023, a Comyn deepfake touted an automated platform for generating passive income. But the person purporting to be Comyn was speaking with an American accent and the website being promoted was not owned by CBA.
Since then, the technology has improved. Through the Australian Financial Crime Exchange, a group of banks called the anti-scams intel loop has flagged the 32,000 items that need to be removed from platforms and messaging services. Meta will need to respond, with the Albanese government’s “scam prevention framework” coming into force on March 31. It requires the digital platforms, banks and telcos to work collaboratively to prevent, detect, disrupt, report and respond to scams.
“I think regulation has an important part to play in incentivising the right behaviours within big tech, to realise that they have a wider social responsibility to keep their rails clean,” Roberts said. “A world where you can’t trust any digital content is probably not a great world.”
CyberCX director of cyber intelligence Leah Pinto said she was concerned about the number of people being tricked by deepfake scams and “once young people get this technology under their belt, and they think it’s commonplace to be able to use it, what does that mean for businesses?”
James Turner, managing director of CISO Lens, said AI-generated scamming was arriving at the same time as social trust was being undermined as people lost faith in governments and authority more broadly. “It’s like petrol being poured on top of all of this kind of stuff, accelerating it,” he said.
Fortescue chairman Andrew Forrest is suing Meta in California over scams that used his likeness to advertise fake investment and cryptocurrency schemes. Meriton managing director Harry Triguboff and Visy executive chairman Anthony Pratt have also been impersonated by scammers.
In the year to June 30, ASIC removed more than 19,400 online scams, which was up 182 per cent on the previous year, many of which were fake investment websites. The regulator also warned that many deepfake scams were supported by fake endorsements, including news articles that tricked people searching the web into checking the legitimacy of postings.
“The presence of polished content, familiar branding or convincing testimonials does not mean an investment is legitimate,” ASIC chair Sarah Court said last month.
The issue is also infecting trust in the superannuation industry, said Insignia Financial chief technology officer Damien O’Donnell.
“I really do feel for our members. They’re facing a level of sophistication that many of them haven’t been prepared for. We want them to trust the superannuation industry [but] I think it is difficult when you know things like this are playing out,” O’Donnell, whose company is behind MLC, said.
Local banking giants have flagged 32,000 examples of dangerous internet content, including a growing number of deepfake investment scams with Meta and telecoms providers, revealing the extent of the clean-up job required before new scam response laws come into force next year.
Content generated by artificial intelligence is being used to swindle customers by impersonating prominent business people and brands, The Australian Financial Review Cyber Summit heard, and it is getting more difficult to distinguish between real and fake as the technology improves.
James Roberts, executive general manager of fraud and scams at Commonwealth Bank, said one-third of people had been presented with a deepfake scam in the past year, mostly investment scams on social media.
The technique typically impersonates trusted people, and he said the “singularity” had arrived, where “you can actually no longer differentiate between a good one and genuine digital content”.
The corporate regulator and National Anti-Scam Centre said last month the most impersonated figures by deepfake scammers include Prime Minister Anthony Albanese, mining magnate Gina Rinehart, television personality Alan Kohler and high-profile economists Stephen Koukoulas and Alan Oster.
CBA chief executive Matt Comyn has also been impersonated. In a video posted on Meta’s Facebook and Instagram platforms in 2023, a Comyn deepfake touted an automated platform for generating passive income. But the person purporting to be Comyn was speaking with an American accent and the website being promoted was not owned by CBA.
Since then, the technology has improved. Through the Australian Financial Crime Exchange, a group of banks called the anti-scams intel loop has flagged the 32,000 items that need to be removed from platforms and messaging services. Meta will need to respond, with the Albanese government’s “scam prevention framework” coming into force on March 31. It requires the digital platforms, banks and telcos to work collaboratively to prevent, detect, disrupt, report and respond to scams.
“I think regulation has an important part to play in incentivising the right behaviours within big tech, to realise that they have a wider social responsibility to keep their rails clean,” Roberts said. “A world where you can’t trust any digital content is probably not a great world.”
CyberCX director of cyber intelligence Leah Pinto said she was concerned about the number of people being tricked by deepfake scams and “once young people get this technology under their belt, and they think it’s commonplace to be able to use it, what does that mean for businesses?”
James Turner, managing director of CISO Lens, said AI-generated scamming was arriving at the same time as social trust was being undermined as people lost faith in governments and authority more broadly. “It’s like petrol being poured on top of all of this kind of stuff, accelerating it,” he said.
Fortescue chairman Andrew Forrest is suing Meta in California over scams that used his likeness to advertise fake investment and cryptocurrency schemes. Meriton managing director Harry Triguboff and Visy executive chairman Anthony Pratt have also been impersonated by scammers.
In the year to June 30, ASIC removed more than 19,400 online scams, which was up 182 per cent on the previous year, many of which were fake investment websites. The regulator also warned that many deepfake scams were supported by fake endorsements, including news articles that tricked people searching the web into checking the legitimacy of postings.
“The presence of polished content, familiar branding or convincing testimonials does not mean an investment is legitimate,” ASIC chair Sarah Court said last month.
The issue is also infecting trust in the superannuation industry, said Insignia Financial chief technology officer Damien O’Donnell.
“I really do feel for our members. They’re facing a level of sophistication that many of them haven’t been prepared for. We want them to trust the superannuation industry [but] I think it is difficult when you know things like this are playing out,” O’Donnell, whose company is behind MLC, said.