CON THEM WITH KOHLI

Gautam S Mengle

It is a face you have seen hundreds of times over the last few months. The man in the video has been all over the news as well as social media. But what catches your eye is that this same man is now endorsing a game you had never heard of. The man in question is Anant Ambani, and the game is called Aviator.

While the debate over the ethics of celebrities promoting betting apps rages on, a new threat has now come to light - deepfake videos of celebrities endorsing a cyber-scam spanning two continents under the guise of a betting game.

Researchers at CloudSEK, a cybersecurity solutions and research firm headquartered in Bengaluru, on Friday published the findings of their research into a highly organized and well-executed scam making use of Artificial Intelligence (AI) generated videos of public figures.

In an exclusive interaction with FPJ, CloudSEK's researchers broke down how the scam leverages deep-fake technology to create convincing videos that promote the fraudulent mobile gaming app.

“It all began with a closer look at whether cricketer Virat Kohli’s images were being misused, as such scams often misuse the popularity of those who are in the news or the talk of the town,” recalled Gagan S, researcher at CloudSEK. “From there, it was a rabbit hole, with an entire hoard of AI generated deepfakes in the Facebook ads library.”