Martin Lewis has issued an urgent scam warning after a fake video of the money expert was shared online.
The financial specialist appeared on ITV's Good Morning Britain this morning to raise the alert over what's known as a "deepfake", which uses AI-powered technology to create a realistic computer-generated likeness of a person.
Describing the widely circulated scam clip, which encourages unsuspecting people to give up their hard earned money, the MoneySavingExpert founder said he was 'viscerally angry' abut the video.
A long time campaigner for online ad regulation, Lewis has warned that "lives could be ruined" if things don't change.
Speaking to GMB hosts Ben Shepard and Kate Garraway on Friday, Martin said: "It's an absolutely terrifying development, this is still only early stages of the technology and they are only going to get better."
On first glance of the clip, Lewis himself appears to be endorsing an investment scheme from Elon Musk, but it is actually a computer generated image made with AI technology. Concerningly, the fraudsters who made this fake depiction of Martin has been able to mimic his voice, making it a dead ringer for the financial journalist.
Martin continued: "I am viscerally angry about this. People watching will know that I've been campaigning for proper regulation of scam adverts for years."
In 2018, Lewis successfully sued Facebook after over 1,000 scam adverts abusing his name or image had appeared on the site - winning a £3 million pound settlement that was donated to the Citizens Advice Project.
Lewis also referred to the online safety bill introduced by the government last March, which has since been submitted for amendments, including the removal of the “legal but harmful” provisions for adults to protect freedom of expression, according to the House of Commons Library.
"So we still have an absolute wild west on social media and other big tech advertising platforms that allow scammers to get away with impunity," Lewis added.
"What I want everybody watching to remember, every time you see one of those adverts one of the big tech firms is being paid to promote that advert and these destroy vulnerable peoples and many non vulnerable peoples lives."
Anyone who sees adverts like this or others bearing Lewis' image must remember that he does not take part in advertisements and should not listen to their unverified financial advice. Not only can such scams destroy people financially, they can also have a disastrous emotional impact.
Lewis added: "Once you get scammed, the impact on your mental health and self esteem is huge on many people and we are still after all these years. How many times have I done this talking about scam adverts? Trying to warn 'no I don't do adverts' and we're still having it, and now its deepfake videos that are really plausible."
On April 4, Lewis issued a separate warning over fake Twitter profiles that were impersonating the money expert. He cited one profile that was able to appear verified after the social media giant started charging for the blue tick.
The since deleted account was seen to be giving advice on cryptocurrency and was retweeted thousands of times by members of the public.
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