Deepfake investment scams baffle SEC

March 4, 2025 | 12:00am

MANILA, Philippines — The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) continues its relentless efforts to combat investment scams, but the agency said that its options are currently limited when it comes to those utilizing deepfakes.

“That’s the thing, everything is fake. It’s very difficult to discern if it is true or not. The thing there is why do they even do these things? It’s about scamming people, right? Getting money,” SEC chairperson Emilio Aquino said in an interview.

“So what’s important is to follow the money. If there’s anything that is legit there, it’s the bank account or the portal wallet that they will give to you so you will send money. But all the rest – the face, whatever information they are sharing or whatever they are promising – they are all fakes,” he said.

“We have to find out. That’s why we are talking to all these online, digital portals. That’s the only way. So far, that is the only thing we can do,” Aquino said.

To educate the public, the SEC has been persistent in its information campaign, regularly issuing warnings against potential scammers through various advisories.

Asked on the Department of Information and Communications Technology (DICT)’s efforts in combating investment scams using deepfakes, DICT Secretary Ivan John Uy said that the agency is also working with the SEC.

“The SEC is the one that’s doing it. We help them by providing them with technical know-how. How to identify that it is deepfake. We also have collaborations with Scam Watch and with many other organizations,” Uy said.

Aided by these of artificial intelligence, scams on social media continue to proliferate and are becoming more sophisticated, according to the Gokongwei Group.

In an advisory yesterday, the group warned anew of mounting efforts by unscrupulous parties to defraud the public through investment opportunities supposedly endorsed by well-know personalities.

The group said that these efforts are becoming more and more sophisticated and are now utilizing deepfakes created by artificial intelligence.

“Please be vigilant and properly scrutinize web pages, social media accounts and links before engaging with them. Never open links from suspicious or unknown social media accounts and websites,” the group said.

“Even as the Gokongwei Group continues to take the appropriate mitigation measures, we can all help combat these scams on our personal capacity by reporting such fraudulent ads to Meta when we encounter them on our feeds. When in doubt, we enjoin you to exercise caution and still report it to Meta for their verification. Nothing is lost by being extra vigilant,” it said.

Last month, tycoon Ramon Ang has called for real action to put an end to the prevalence of deepfake videos being used to scam the public.

In a social media post, Ang warned of a fake sponsored post using an old interview of him.