This article is the latest part of the FT’s Financial Literacy and Inclusion Campaign
Martin Lewis has called for Big Tech companies to be threatened with fines worth “tens of billions of pounds” to end the menace of AI-generated deepfake adverts on social media platforms, stressing the damage to British victims’ mental health as well as their finances.
Speaking at the FT Weekend Festival on Saturday, the consumer champion said it was not unusual for “300 to 400” scams a day featuring his image to appear across different social media platforms, including deepfake videos in which the Money Saving Expert founder appeared to be promoting fraudulent investment schemes.
“There are scam ads of me in computer games that children play, they’re all over the place,” he said. “I have people on my team who can spend half their week dealing with scam ads with me in [and getting them taken down].” He questioned why he had to fund this, and not the online tech groups.
Lewis said he had attended meetings with Big Tech companies who had told him they were investing in better software to spot and remove scam ads, but were resistant to his calls to employ more people to do so.
