A series of mysterious TikTok ads linked to a Serbian entrepreneur-cum-MotoGP announcer featuring bizarre artificially generated people soliciting medical and personal contact information from Australian users have been removed following Crikey’s inquiries.
For months, Australian users have been bombarded with TikTok video advertisements featuring at least three models, seemingly artificially generated, who promote a “free case evaluation” for people who have suffered an injury at work or in public.
The ads, published under the TikTok account of NSW Accident Lawyers, direct users to a third party website which asks people to put in their name, phone number and information about their injury into a form.
There’s no indication on the account or the form of the identity of the advertiser or who they are seeking the data on behalf of. The form claims that 1637 people have put their details into the form at the time of writing.
A TikTok spokesperson said the advertisements violated its advertising policies and have been removed.
“In addition to our extensive trust and safety teams and systems, we also encourage users to report any suspicious in-app activities so that we can take immediate action to continue to keep our platform safe,” they told Crikey in an email.
Models spruik personal injury claims
The advertisements offer few clues to who might be behind them. There’s no registered law practice in NSW called NSW Accident Lawyers, nor is there a business registered in Australia under that name.
The speakers’ scripts don’t provide any hints, although they do feature slang such as “mate” and “copped” which suggests the video’s creator was trying to at least appear Australian.
“If you’ve copped an injury at work, out in public or because of someone else’s mishap, you might have a claim for compensation. No time to waste, check your eligibility now,” says a young male with a robotic voice in one advertisement.
The models’ mouth and body movements don’t match the words they say.
A reverse-image search of a female model shows she appears on other websites promoting other products but with the same positioning, outfit and movements.
The only hint is on the form, hosted on the Typepad platform, which features a document title element (the HTML code that determines the text that a website shows when it’s a tab in your browser) that is “CMC Free Case Evaluation Form”.
This corroborates another hint. The form’s URL is http://australian-personalinjury.pro.typeform/. A visit to www.australian-personalinjury.com — which uses the same “australian-personalinjury” prefix — shows a logo for CMC Lawyers.
CMC Lawyers is a “no-win, no-fee” law firm that claims to have offices across NSW. According to its website, it offers services to those who “have suffered a loss and think you may have a right to compensation”. It’s LinkedIn account lists it as having 32 employees.
Crikey approached the firm to ask whether CMC Lawyers was aware that the ads were running, if CMC Lawyers was using a third party to assist with lead generation, and if there was any other comment it would like to make.
In response, CMC Lawyers’ partner Mark Capolupo offered to meet to “discuss this issue that I regard as serious”. When offered a phone call instead, Capolupo agreed before changing his mind and saying he would make inquiries and get back to Crikey next week. We will update this article if he does.
Digital breadcrumbs lead to global link
So is an Australian law firm creating TikTok ads featuring AI-generated people to find new clients all by itself? Further clues suggest that the marketing strategy may have come from somewhere else.
One of the subpages of the www.australian-personalinjury.com website is an author page for a user “ercegsrdjan93@gmail.com”. A similarly named author appears on other websites such as www.nationalcompensationfund.com, www.consumer-claim-network and www.clearclaims.co — which are all US-focused websites seeking people’s details to join class actions or seek legal compensation.
One other place where the ercegsrdjan93@gmail.com account appears is the website for Huge Publishing, a business that describes itself as offering “high quality leads across legal niches”.
The website’s terms and conditions page lists the email address as belonging to the company’s CEO, Srdjan Erceg. His X (formerly Twitter) account Serbian user @serceg, whose profile name is Srdjan Erceg, lists himself as the CEO of Huge Publishing. His Twitter profile also shows he wears a number of other hats including working as a “MotoGP, F1, NASCAR & NFL commentator” for a Serbian-based company.
Huge Publishing’s website offers to generate leads — which means the contact details of people who are interested in a service — using digital advertising including video ads that they claim are their “richest, most consistent source of new business and clientele”.
IP analysis of the Huge Publishing’s website www.hugepublishing.co shows that it’s hosted at the same address as www.australian-personalityinjury.com along with 80-odd other similar domains, suggesting a common link between the websites.
Erceg did not answer questions sent to that email address.
The advertisements appear to have evoked a strong reaction from those TikTok users who saw it — just not what was intended. The comments on the TikTok platform are filled with people remarking on the artificially generated-models: “Nice AI ad. Creepy as fuck. God I hate this shit.” Another chimes in: “Cringe.”
