Description: An online article reportedly used AI-generated imagery to falsely depict Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC) finance presenter Alan Kohler interviewing Reserve Bank of Australia governor Michele Bullock about Boulder Sparhaven, a cryptocurrency trading platform not licensed in Australia. The Australian Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC) cited it as an example of increasingly sophisticated AI-assisted investment scams targeting Australians.
Entities
View all entitiesAlleged: Synthetic media generation technology developers , Synthetic image generation technology developers and Deepfake technology developers developed an AI system deployed by Synthetic media creators , Scammers in Australia , Scammers , Investment scam operators , Deepfake creators in Australia , Deepfake creators and Cybercriminals, which harmed Victims of impersonation scams , Michele Bullock , Investors , General public of Australia , General public , Epistemic integrity , Australian investors and Alan Kohler.
Alleged implicated AI systems: Synthetic media generation technology , Synthetic image generation technology , Fake investment platforms , Deepfake technology and Boulder Sparhaven
Incident Stats
Incident ID
1665
Report Count
3
Incident Date
2026-08-17
Editors
Daniel Atherton
Incident Reports
Reports Timeline
Loading...
Scammers are using impersonations of celebrities, politicians and trusted public figures to promote fake investment schemes, with the corporate watchdog warning AI is making the practice increasingly common, sophisticated and harder to dete…
Loading...
Reserve Bank governor Michele Bullock sits down across the studio from ABC finance presenter Alan Kohler.
According to a now-removed article that appeared online, the interview gets increasingly heated, until, astonishingly, Bullock storms …
Loading...
Australian Securities and Investments Commission post-incident response
ASIC is warning Australians that a quick online search is not enough to verify investment opportunities as scammers use generative AI to create vast networks of deepfake websites and endorsements to lure victims.
ASIC has seen a sharp rise …
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.
Seen something similar?