The Financial Markets Authority – Te Mana Tātai Hokohoko (FMA) is warning consumers about an increasing number of scams using fake news articles featuring prominent politicians and business leaders to entice consumers to invest in fake trading platforms.
Samantha McGuire, Manager Regulatory Services, says the scammers are using artificial intelligence to create deepfake images and videos featuring likenesses of politicians and business leaders to create a sense of credibility.
“We recommend exercising extreme caution when engaging with online content promoting investment opportunities, particularly when it uses images of high-profile New Zealanders. This isn’t a new scam, we first warned about these tactics in August 2024, but we’ve recently seen a significant increase in ads, fake news articles and fake investment platform websites linked to the scam.
“The current wave features clickbait headlines claiming to have information that authorities don’t want revealed. Individuals impersonated using deepfakes include Rt Hon Winston Peters, Kiwibank CEO, Steve Jurkovich and Westpac CEO, Catherine McGrath. But the scammers continuously switch the identities they’re impersonating, so stories may still be fake if they feature a different individual,” Ms McGuire warns.
The FMA identified 110 ads linked to the scam published in one 24-hour period on Meta sites. Since the start of March this year, over 190 of these fake trading platform websites have been identified and flagged for removal.
How the scam works
Scammers use fake articles on social media and news aggregators featuring images or deepfake videos of New Zealand politicians, business leaders and other public figures, along with fake claims to generate interest. The fake articles use the logos of real news sites including RNZ, TVNZ and the NZ Herald but the articles they link to contain false endorsements of investment platforms.
These articles direct users to websites where victims are asked to register their contact details. Scammers then contact victims posing as investment brokers, and refer them to fake platforms, where victims are encouraged to make an initial small investment (around US$250).
Victims are shown manipulated profits to pressure them into investing more. When victims try to withdraw funds, they are told to pay fees, but no money is ever returned.
“Do not click on these ads or links, and do not enter your personal information into these websites. If you have been contacted by a scammer after entering your personal information into one of these websites, block the contact, do not transfer any money to the scammers,” says Ms McGuire.
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