Eddie McGuire fumes as scammers rip off video of him from the Today show
Former Collingwood president Eddie McGuire has hit out at the “horrible people” behind an elaborate scam involving a video of him with an AI generated fake voice.
Victoria
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Eddie McGuire has hit out at elaborate scammers who used AI videos of his stolen identity to lure unsuspecting people into fake money schemes.
The former Collingwood president appears in a YouTube advert speaking with a slight American accent and spruiking a life-changing financial venture.
McGuire said the scammers ripped off a video of him speaking on the Today show, and labelled the deepfake video “disgraceful and disgusting”.
“I’ve been the subject of Facebook et cetera scams many times,” McGuire said.
“I don’t do advertising for these things and aren’t on any social platforms, so anything with me in it is completely fraudulent. That is vision from a Today show cross sometime, I’m guessing, and then AI generation of my voice.
“It seems out of America with use of ‘math’ not ‘maths’.
“Horrible, thieving people preying upon unsuspecting victims while trying to steal my identity – disgraceful and disgusting.”
In the video, which was circulating on Sunday, McGuire makes comments that could be construed as legitimate by the unwitting public.
“I’ve spent most of my life creating projects that can improve the life of every Australian,’’ he says in the scam, adding that the viewer had been specially selected as one of “100 random users”.
“Listen carefully. You can only watch this video once, if you leave this page you won’t be able to come back because your link will expire along with your potential earnings,” he says. “Try our algorithm for free and change your life,” it continues, promising viewers could earn $1000 a day.
McGuire said scams would only become more realistic.
He said the situation was being investigated by corporate and media watchdogs with billionaire Andrew “Twiggy” Forrest leading the charge and taking legal action in the US.
More than 230,000 fake ads using the mining magnate’s image were posted on Meta’s social sites via its own advertising platform since 2019.
Forrest is taking action against Facebook’s parent company Meta after it was ordered to disclose information about how its advertising technology facilitated scammers.
Other rich-list Australians are among many misrepresented in deepfake advertisements with altered images or videos, including Gina Rinehart and Dick Smith.
Last year David Koch was devastated after hearing a woman lost her life savings having thought the finance guru and Port Adelaide chairman was spruiking a genuine online bitcoin scheme.
Today host Karl Stefanovic was the subject of a duped video in which he speaks with a strange accent.
He labelled the video frightening.
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