Purported AI-Generated Videos Impersonating President of Malta Myriam Spiteri Debono Circulate on Social Media in Alleged Crypto Scam Campaigns

The Office of the President of Malta issued a public warning about purported deepfake videos and fabricated images impersonating President Myriam Spiteri Debono. The alleged AI-generated content was reportedly used to promote fraudulent financial schemes, primarily involving cryptocurrency, across social media platforms.

Risk classification

• Primary risk domain: 4 Malicious actors
• Primary risk subdomain: 4.3 Fraud, scams, and targeted manipulation

The incident involves the use of AI-generated deepfakes of a public figure's likeness to deceive individuals for fraudulent financial gain.

Additional risk subdomains

• 3.1 False or misleading information: The deepfakes generate false information regarding the President's endorsement of cryptocurrency investments.

Causal factors

• Entity: Human
• Intent: Intentional
• Timing: Post-deployment

The incident was caused by human scammers who intentionally created and deployed deepfakes of the President to defraud the public.

EU AI Act risk tier

• Risk tier: 3 Limited Risk

Limited Risk: The report describes the use of 'deepfakes, a portmanteau of deep learning and fake, are images, videos, or audio which are edited or generated using artificial intelligence tools', which falls under AI-generated content.

AI system and alleged parties

• AI system: None named
• AI purpose: Deepfake Video Generation; Deepfake Image Generation
• Behaviour type: Tool
• Alleged developer: Unknown deepfake technology developers
• Alleged deployer: Unknown scammers impersonating Myriam Spiteri Debono, Unknown scammers
• Alleged harmed parties: Office of the President of Malta, Myriam Spiteri Debono, General public of Malta

Harm severity

Severity ratings are based on this scale.

Highest direct severity in any category: Minor. Severity is scored from Negligible to Catastrophic in each harm category, for harm the reports describe as caused directly or indirectly by the AI system.

• Physical: direct Negligible, indirect Negligible
• Infrastructure: direct Negligible, indirect Negligible
• Property: direct Negligible, indirect Negligible
• Financial: direct Negligible, indirect Negligible
• Environmental: direct Negligible, indirect Negligible
• Malicious content: direct Minor, indirect Negligible
• Differential treatment: direct Negligible, indirect Negligible
• Civil rights: direct Negligible, indirect Negligible
• Democracy: direct Negligible, indirect Negligible
• Privacy: direct Negligible, indirect Negligible
• Psychological: direct Negligible, indirect Negligible
• Epistemic: direct Minor, indirect Negligible
• Child sexual exploitation and abuse: direct Negligible, indirect Negligible

Malicious content

Reported: Yes, the report describes deepfake videos and fake photos used to impersonate the President for fraudulent purposes.

Directly caused: Deepfake videos and fake photos of President Myriam Spiteri Debono were created and spread on Facebook, X, and Instagram to promote scams.

Inferred additional harm: Additional deepfake content of other public figures or news portals like MaltaToday is likely being generated and spread to wider audiences.

Epistemic

Reported: Yes, the report describes deepfake videos and fake photos of the President being used to spread false information about financial investments.

Directly caused: AI-generated deepfakes fabricated the President's endorsement of cryptocurrency investments on social media platforms.

Inferred additional harm: The proliferation of such deepfakes contributes to a broader erosion of trust in digital media and official statements.

People affected

• Occurrences reported: 1
• People reportedly harmed: 1
• People reportedly exposed: 10000

Potential causes

Management

• Inadequate Content Moderation: Platform management fails to proactively block fraudulent deepfake ads.

Technology

• AI Deepfake Generation: AI tools used to generate realistic fake videos and photos of the President.
• Impersonation of Trusted Entities: AI enables high-fidelity cloning of public figures to gain trust.

Data Inputs

• Use of Public Media Data: Public photos and videos of the President used to train deepfake models.

Human Factors

• Vulnerability to Scams: Public difficulty in distinguishing highly realistic deepfakes from real media.
• Lack of Public Awareness: Users trust social media profiles without verifying their authenticity.

Process and Methods

• Reactive Reporting Mechanisms: Platforms rely on manual reporting after scams have already been published.
• Inadequate Profile Verification: Social networks allow easy creation of impersonating accounts.

Regulatory Environment

• Weak Platform Regulations: Lack of strict regulatory oversight on social media content and scams.

Information quality

• Classification confidence: High
• Reason for confidence: The report clearly details the impersonation of the President of Malta using deepfakes on social media to promote financial scams. While the specific AI models used are not identified, the nature of the incident as a deepfake-enabled scam is explicitly stated, allowing for high-confidence classification.
• Ambiguities identified: The specific AI tools or platforms used to generate the deepfakes are not identified, and the exact number of victims or financial losses is not specified.
• Alternative interpretations: None. The incident is clearly a malicious impersonation and financial scam campaign.

The Office of the President of Malta warned of deepfake videos and images impersonating President Myriam Spiteri Debono to promote cryptocurrency scams. While targeting a head of state, the incident is a financially motivated cybercrime with minor national security implications, manageable through standard public relations and cyber security procedures.

• Overall national security impact: Minor
• Scope: Single nation
• Primary target: Malta
• Alleged perpetrator: Unknown

Threat characteristics

• Imminence: Near-term. The fraudulent campaign is active on social media, requiring ongoing monitoring and mitigation by authorities to protect citizens.
• Autonomy: Human-controlled. The deepfakes were generated using AI tools under direct human control and deployed manually by scammers.
• Novelty: Established threat. Impersonating public figures via deepfakes for financial scams is a well-established and common cybercriminal tactic.

Impact by dimension

• Physical security: Negligible. No physical assets, critical infrastructure, or kinetic systems were targeted or affected in this incident.
• Information security: Minor. Involves deepfake operations targeting a national leader, but the campaign is focused on financial fraud rather than state-sponsored information warfare.
• Sovereignty: Minor. Impersonation of the President of Malta represents a minor threat to official government communications, managed through public warnings and reporting.
• Economic security: Minor. The deepfakes promote fraudulent cryptocurrency schemes, posing a minor economic threat to individual citizens but no systemic risk to national financial infrastructure.
• Societal stability: Minor. Erosion of trust in digital media and official statements is a minor concern, but there is no evidence of widespread societal instability or civil unrest.