By Debora Ely
(Reuters) -A group of suspected scammers in Brazil using Instagram ads featuring deepfakes of supermodel Gisele Bundchen and other celebrities appears to have made millions of dollars through online fraud, according to police investigators.
Authorities arrested four suspects tied to the scheme this week and froze assets across five states in an investigation that found over 20 million reais ($3.9 million) in suspicious funds identified by federal anti-money laundering organ COAF.
The operation marks one of the first attempts in Brazil to counter the growing use of artificial intelligence tools to manipulate images and videos of celebrities for online scams.
Brazil’s Supreme Court ruled in June that social media platforms can be held liable for criminal ads posted by users if they fail to act swiftly to remove the content, even without a court order.
Instagram owner Meta said that its policies forbid “ads that deceptively use public figures to try to scam people,” and that it removes such ads “when detected.” The company added in a statement that it has “specialized systems to detect celeb-bait, invests heavily in trained review teams, shares tips on avoiding scams and offers tools to report potential violations.”
Bundchen did not respond to a request for comment. She previously warned followers about fake videos circulating on social media using her image to perpetrate scams.
The probe announced this week by police investigators in the southern state of Rio Grande do Sul began in August 2024 after a victim reported being misled by an Instagram ad showing an altered video of Bundchen promoting a skincare product.
Another ad used the supermodel’s likeness to promise a giveaway of suitcases, with buyers paying shipping fees for items that never arrived.
“We identified that the criminal group carried out a series of other scams, involving deepfakes of other celebrities and false betting platforms,” Eibert Moreira Neto, head of Rio Grande do Sul’s cybercrime unit, told Reuters.
Investigators are pursuing charges of money laundering and online fraud. They noted that most victims lost small amounts, usually under 100 reais ($19), and did not report the crimes.
“That created a perverse situation in which the criminals enjoyed a kind of ‘statistical immunity.’ They knew most people would not report them, so they operated at scale without fear,” Isadora Galian, from the cybercrime unit, said in a statement.
(Reporting by Debora Ely; Additional reporting by Bernardo Barbosa; Editing by Brad Haynes and Aurora Ellis)
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