New York Attorney General (AG) Letitia James issued an investor alert on Aug. 29, warning New Yorkers about scams luring potential investors with fake videos created with artificial intelligence (AI) that apparently show celebrities or wealthy business leaders touting investment schemes, which are actually fraudulent. James said the videos, known as deepfakes, often appear in social media feeds, digital ads, and messaging apps and are expected to fuel billions of dollars in fraud every year.

 

She urges New Yorkers to heed tips to protect themselves from such fraud and to look out for red flags, including promises of guaranteed returns on investments, demands to invest immediately or warnings of missing out on an opportunity, apparent requests to invest by celebrities or other famous people, demands to send cryptocurrency to a non-bit licensed platform or a private wallet, and requests to move public conversations on social media to encrypted, private messaging platforms.

 

James is also encouraging New Yorkers to search the internet for reviews on salespeople and to verify any physical address provided by a salesperson. New Yorkers can check investment professional registration at https://brokercheck.finra.org/.

 

She also advised residents to be wary of livestreams or other video/audio messages trying to persuade residents to make any investments, even if they appear to be livestreams, as they could be deepfakes. The AG said to carry out a reverse search of the footage used, and check reliable sources for previous interviews of the speaker, adding that fraudsters often utilize footage from an existing, real public video or audio.

 

James urged residents not to provide any personal information, financial information, or log-in credentials, etc., to any individual met online only and that if a solicitation apparently comes from a known contact, to verify that it is an actual known contact by reviewing that contact’s profile and contacting them through alternate means, such as a phone call for validation.

 

To prevent fraudsters from impersonating any contacts, James urged residents to change their profile settings to keep their friends list, photos, videos, posts, and even comments private and not to click on any links in emails or direct messages unless the identity of the sender has been validated.

 

The AG also said to be wary of unsolicited investment opportunities, especially those that come via email, social media, or phone calls, adding that legitimate firms do not aggressively push potential investors to make quick decisions or disclose sensitive information through such channels​.

 

She also recommended enabling Multi-Factor Authentication (MFA) on all accounts, particularly those related to finance and email. MFA requires more than one method of verification, making it much harder for scammers to access people’s accounts — even if they use sophisticated techniques like deepfakes.

 

James also said to bear in mind that such transactions are almost always irreversible, and urged any residents who decide to invest to preserve all paperwork and communications.

 

“Sophisticated scammers are using AI to impersonate trusted business leaders and scam vulnerable New Yorkers out of their hard-earned money,” said James. “Manipulated videos advertising phony investment scams are spreading like wildfire on social media, and New Yorkers should know how to avoid falling victim to these schemes.”

 

Anyone who may have been a victim of this type of scam should report it to the AG’s office via the following link https://ag.ny.gov/financial-fraud-complaint-form, or by calling 1-800-771-7755. James said any identifying information provided by residents to her office will be protected according to law and policies on the safeguarding of identifying information.