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Incident 1154: Reported AI‑Generated Deepfake Impersonations of Public Figures Allegedly Used in Coordinated Stock Pump‑and‑Dump Scheme Targeting Israeli Investors

Description: A coordinated fraud campaign in Israel allegedly used AI‑generated deepfake impersonations of public figures including Amir Yaron, Benjamin Netanyahu, Eyal Golan, Noa Kirel, Gal Gadot, Elon Musk, and Mark Zuckerberg to promote NASDAQ‑listed Ostin Technology Group Co. Ltd. (OST) in a pump‑and‑dump scheme. Paid social media ads, WhatsApp groups, and fake investment platforms reportedly lured investors before the stock collapsed in early July 2025, causing major reported losses.
Editor Notes: The date for this incident ID is set as the approximate date of 04/01/2025. According to the available reporting, the timeline of events for this incident is: (1) in early April 2025, scammers allegedly launched a coordinated campaign using deepfake videos of Israeli and international public figures to promote a real NASDAQ-traded stock (OST) via paid ads on Facebook, Instagram, and WhatsApp, supported by fake investment community WhatsApp groups and impersonations of trusted financial institutions; (2) in mid-to-late April, the "pump" phase reportedly intensified, with tailored deepfakes, localized messaging, and AI-enhanced targeting inflating the stock price and lending credibility to the scam; (3) in May–June 2025, the scheme continued at scale, maintaining inflated stock prices while Meta's enforcement actions reportedly remained piecemeal; (4) over the weekend of July 5–6, 2025, the stock is reported to have collapsed by nearly 93%, triggering large financial losses for victims, which were widely reported by July 7, 2025.

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Alleged: Unknown deepfake technology developer and Unknown voice cloning technology developer developed an AI system deployed by Unknown scammers , Unknown fraudsters and Unknown scam network linked to AI‑generated deepfake campaign promoting OST stock, which harmed Israeli investors , General public of Israel , Amir Yaron , Benjamin Netanyahu , Eyal Golan , Noa Kirel , Gal Gadot , Elon Musk , Mark Zuckerberg , Ostin Technology Group , Economy of Israel , NASDAQ and Stock market.
Alleged implicated AI systems: Unknown deepfake technology , Unknown voice cloning technology , Meta advertising platform , Facebook , Instagram , WhatsApp and Fake investment platforms

Incident Stats

Incident ID
1154
Report Count
1
Incident Date
2025-04-01
Editors
Daniel Atherton

Incident Reports

Reports Timeline

Incident OccurrenceAI-powered scam Hits Israeli investors, deepfakes and fake stocks fuel major losses
AI-powered scam Hits Israeli investors, deepfakes and fake stocks fuel major losses

AI-powered scam Hits Israeli investors, deepfakes and fake stocks fuel major losses

ynetnews.com

AI-powered scam Hits Israeli investors, deepfakes and fake stocks fuel major losses
ynetnews.com · 2025

A wave of Israeli investors have fallen victim to an elaborate stock market scam---one that cost some of them hundreds of thousands. Launched quietly in April, the con was orchestrated through a highly coordinated campaign across social med…

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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