South Africans falling victim to deep-fake scams

With fake images and videos of celebrities being used to try and build legitimacy for scams that try to steal people’s money or personal data, South Africans in particular are currently falling victim to campaigns featuring the likenesses of Elon Musk and President Cyril Ramaphosa. News24 reports that one such deep-fake scam involving Musk purports to be an SABC broadcast of the Tesla CEO advertising an investment scheme which promises returns of R30 000/month on a R4 700 investment. The Department of Communications and Digital Technologies also recently warned the public about a scam that claims to show an offer of free airtime from the president that when clicked infects your device with Malware.