Scammers are increasingly using AI-generated videos to impersonate trusted South African figures, making scams harder to detect. (Illustration: Freepik) The next scam message in your inbox may not look like a scam. It may arrive with a familiar logo, a respectable company name, a polished investment pitch or even a video of someone you recognise. That is what makes deepfake fraud so dangerous – it’s no longer easy to spot because of bad spelling, dodgy links or a prince with a suspicious inheritance problem.
The Financial Sector Conduct Authority (FSCA) has warned about sophisticated scams targeting South African traders, with fraudsters using deepfake videos to impersonate well-known business leaders, officials and TV personalities. The names being abused include Patrice Motsepe, Leanne Manas, President Cyril Ramaphosa and Deputy President Paul Mashatile. Scammers are using AI-generated video manipulations to promote fake investment platforms, often promising significant daily returns from small investments.
“These impersonation scams represent a dangerous new phase in financial fraud,” says MJ Givens Kgasi, an analyst at Octa, a trading platform. “The tactics have moved beyond unrealistic returns and unlicensed operators. Now, scammers are actively hijacking the names, faces and credibility of South Africa’s most trusted institutions and individuals. For traders, this makes due diligence more important than ever.”
Impersonations and fraudulent certificates
Deepfakes are AI-generated or AI-manipulated videos, images or audio clips that make it appear as if someone said or did something they did not. In the investment world, this can mean a fake video of a public figure apparently endorsing a trading platform, a cloned voice note from your boss asking for an urgent payment, or a fake certificate supposedly issued by a regulator.
Old Mutual has also warned about scams circulating on social media, messaging platforms and email, in which fraudsters impersonate senior executives to mislead potential victims. In one case, scammers falsely used the company’s name and the name of Old Mutual Group chief operating officer Zureida Ebrahim to create a sense of credibility around a supposed opportunity.
The old fraud rule was “don’t believe everything you read”. The new one is “don’t believe everything you see or hear”. As Richard Ford, group chief technical officer at Integrity360, puts it: “Generative AI has democratised the ability to steal not just a credit card number, but a likeness.”
This means scammers can scrape audio from TikTok, Instagram, Facebook or Linked-In and use cheap AI tools to clone a person’s voice. A panicked call from a “child” who needs emergency cash, a WhatsApp voice note from a “financial director” requesting a payment, or a video call with fake colleagues can all be engineered to bypass your scepticism.
The red flags are still there. Be suspicious of guaranteed returns, especially daily returns from forex, crypto or trading platforms. Be wary of unsolicited investment offers on WhatsApp, Telegram or social media. Check for urgency: scammers want you to act before your brain has put on its reading glasses. Also check email addresses carefully. A display name can say “Old Mutual”, whereas the actual address contains a tiny misspelling.
Pause and verify
Before investing, verify that the platform is registered with the FSCA. The financial services provider number must match the company name. Do not rely on screenshots, certificates or links sent by the person trying to sell you the investment.
Ford recommends a simple defence: “The most effective control is often completely non-technical: the ‘pause and verify’ rule.”
At home, agree on a family safe word or question for emergencies. If someone phones in distress asking for money, ask the question, hang up and call them back on their saved number. At work, no payment should be approved on one channel alone. A WhatsApp instruction should be verified by phone. An email should be checked through a known internal number.
Fraudsters feed on panic, greed and helpfulness. Your best protection in a world where faces, voices and logos can be copied is taking a beat to assess. Verification is the new common sense. DM
This story first appeared in our weekly Daily Maverick 168 newspaper, which is available countrywide for R35.
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