Description: Fraudsters allegedly used AI-generated content and social media ads to impersonate economist David Rosenberg and promote a fraudulent investment scheme. Victims were reportedly directed to WhatsApp groups with fake stock tips, resulting in substantial financial losses, with some exceeding $500,000. The ads reportedly appeared on Meta platforms, including Facebook and Instagram. Rosenberg and his family reported the scam to authorities.
Editor Notes: Timeline note: 04/15/2025 is an approximate date. The ads reportedly began circulating sometime in April 2025. This incident ID was created 06/22/2025.
Entities
View all entitiesAlleged: Unknown deepfake technology developer and Unknown voice cloning technology developer developed an AI system deployed by Unknown scammers , Unknown fraudsters and Unknown scammers impersonating David Rosenberg, which harmed David Rosenberg , Syed Hasan , Unnamed woman who lost $500,000 , Unnamed man who lost $450,000 , Investors and General public.
Alleged implicated AI systems: Unknown deepfake technology , Unknown voice cloning technology , Meta Platforms , WhatsApp , Instagram and Facebook
Incident Stats
Incident ID
1115
Report Count
2
Incident Date
2025-04-15
Editors
Daniel Atherton
Incident Reports
Reports Timeline
David Rosenberg, founder and CEO of Rosenberg Research, discovered that scammers were deceiving victims by posting investment advertisements under his name on social media.
Rosenberg is said to have discovered fake investment ads appearing …
Last week, Bank of Montreal chief investment strategist Brian Belski became the latest finance heavyweight to warn his social-media followers about imposters posing as him to scam investors.
Mr. Belski alluded to bogus Instagram and Faceboo…
Variants
A "variant" is an AI incident similar to a known case—it has the same causes, harms, and AI system. Instead of listing it separately, we group it under the first reported incident. Unlike other incidents, variants do not need to have been reported outside the AIID. Learn more from the research paper.
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