A public warning about new look online investment scams has been issued today, after a surge in complaints from New Zealanders tricked into clicking on fake advertisements featuring ‘celebrity endorsements’ – some of which use deepfake videos of New Zealand political figures.
This scam uses fake news stories, spread through multiple websites and advertisements, with the names of investment schemes and websites used to promote the scam changing frequently.
Some recent examples include images of the New Zealand Prime Minister Christopher Luxon, with accompanying text falsely claiming, ‘pensions payments will be cancelled’. This is not true and designed to alarm readers into clicking on links included with the content.
FMA Director responsible for Scam Prevention and Co-ordination Peter Taylor said the recent imposter digital content seen by the FMA was very sophisticated.
