Cybertrace Warns Of Deep Fake Featuring Aussie Billionaire

Cybertrace issued a warning noting the video’s potential to deceive people and directs victims to a fraudulent website named Quantum AI.

A sophisticated fake video that appears to be of Australian mining mogul and businessman Andrew “Twiggy” Forrest promoting a phony cryptocurrency trading platform on social media has drawn the attention of the cybersecurity company Cybertrace, which has issued a warning about the video.

Facebook users were encouraged to sign up for a bogus platform that claims to make “ordinary people” hundreds of dollars every day by watching the video posted on the social networking site.

Cybertrace states that potential victims are directed to a website known as “Quantum AI,” which has become synonymous with fraud and money fraud.

Dan Halpin, CEO of Cybertrace told The Australian that he believed “people will be fooled by this deepfake” because the con artists seemed to have sales training.

He continued by saying, “The video is lengthy and repetitive in many ways, which can be quite convincing. It appears to have been created by someone knowledgeable about sales and marketing.”

During a “fireside chat” in October 2023, Rhodes Trust attempted to alter Forrest’s behavior and body language using a phony video. An artificial intelligence (AI)-modified version of the billionaire can be seen promoting bogus cryptocurrency trading software on Facebook according to Cybertrace, which reported that it discovered the deep fake on the social media platform on January 27.

An AI-modified version of Forrest made the following promise: “I want to give you the chance of a lifetime by joining me and my team as a partner in the world’s smartest stock and cryptocurrency trading software that makes money regardless of market conditions and regardless of the market conditions.”

“It has been making ordinary people just like you $700 to $2,200 in profit a day for 9 months now without any problems, and pretty soon [it’ll] be doing the same for you.”

Forrest formerly led the mining company Fortescue Metals Group, located in Western Australia. Having a net worth of $29.4 billion, he is considered to be one of the most successful businesspeople in Australia as reported by Bloomberg.

As the video of the fraud comes to a close, Forrest urges viewers to sign up for the platform before it is too late. As a result of the extensive dissemination of phony photographs of Taylor Swift, deep fakes have recently attracted the attention of politicians in the United States.

In particular, Representative Joe Morelle of the United States of America is enthusiastic about making it illegal to create deep-phony pictures within the country.

Gina Rinehart, the wealthiest person in Australia, Dick Smith an entrepreneur and Allison Langdon a television host have all been targeted by con artists who have created these deep fake videos, according to Cybertrace.

In 2022, Australians reported losing more than 3.1 billion Australian dollars ($2 billion) to scams according to the country’s competition and consumer agency.

This trend of imitating high-profile Australian corporate people and politicians comes when impersonating these individuals has become increasingly popular.

Investment scams utilizing cryptocurrencies as the payment method caused a loss of $148.3 million equivalent to 221.3 million Australian dollars in 2022.

The amount lost in 2022 due to investment scams utilizing cryptocurrencies as the payment method represents a 162.4% increase compared to the previous year.