Purported Deepfake of Sri Lankan President Anura Kumara Dissanayake Promotes Alleged Fraudulent Government Investment Scheme

A reported deepfake depicts Sri Lankan President Anura Kumara Dissanayake endorsing a government investment plan. It reportedly uses manipulated footage from a May 3rd Satana TV program, dubbed or voice-cloned into English, and including a news article imitating the Daily Mirror to lure people to sign up for the scheme. Sri Lanka CERT, journalists, and the Presidential Media Division reportedly confirmed the video and associated links were AI-generated and part of a phishing and scam operation.

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 to impersonate a public figure for the purpose of executing a financial scam and phishing campaign.

Additional risk subdomains

• 2.1 Compromise of privacy by obtaining, leaking or correctly inferring sensitive information: The scam utilized phishing links designed to compromise users' personal details and social media credentials.
• 3.1 False or misleading information: The deepfake video and fake news articles generated and spread false information about a government investment scheme.

Causal factors

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

The incident was caused by human scammers who intentionally deployed AI voice cloning and video manipulation tools to defraud the public.

EU AI Act risk tier

• Risk tier: 3 Limited Risk

Limited Risk: The report describes the use of AI-generated content, specifically deepfakes ('This video has been created using artificial intelligence by manipulating real footage'). Under the EU AI Act, deepfakes and AI-generated content are classified as limited risk, requiring transparency obligations.

AI system and alleged parties

• AI system: unspecified
• AI purpose: Deepfake Video Generation; Voice Generation
• Behaviour type: Tool
• Alleged developer: Unknown voice cloning technology developers, Unknown deepfake technology developers
• Alleged deployer: Unknown scammers impersonating Anura Kumara Dissanayake, Unknown scammers
• Alleged harmed parties: Government of Sri Lanka, General public of Sri Lanka, Epistemic integrity, Daily Mirror of Sri Lanka, Anura Kumara Dissanayake

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 a malicious deepfake video and fake news articles created to deceive the public.

Directly caused: An AI-generated deepfake video of the Sri Lankan President and a fake Daily Mirror article were created and circulated on social media platforms.

Inferred additional harm: The malicious content likely reached thousands of social media users in Sri Lanka before being flagged as a scam.

Epistemic

Reported: Yes, the report describes AI-driven misinformation in the form of a deepfake video and fake news articles.

Directly caused: The creation of a deepfake video showing the President making a false announcement about a government investment scheme, along with a fabricated Daily Mirror interview.

Inferred additional harm: This contributes to the erosion of shared truth and makes it harder for citizens to distinguish genuine government announcements from AI-generated fabrications.

People affected

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

Potential causes

Management

• Poor Platform Content Moderation: Social media platforms failed to proactively manage AI scams.

Technology

• AI Voice Cloning: AI was used to clone the President's voice with unnatural tone.
• Deepfake Video Generation: Real video footage was manipulated using AI to match the fake audio.

Data Inputs

• Unauthorized Use of Real Footage: Real TV broadcast footage was used as input for the deepfake.

Human Factors

• Public Susceptibility to Scams: Users trust fake celebrity endorsements and high return claims.
• Lack of Verification by Users: Social media users click external links without verifying sources.

Process and Methods

• Lack of Deepfake Detection: Social media platforms failed to detect and flag the AI video.
• Phishing Redirection Mechanisms: Scammers used fake URLs to bypass standard verification.

Regulatory Environment

• Absence of Deepfake Regulations: Lack of strong legal frameworks to deter AI-generated scams.

Information quality

• Classification confidence: High
• Reason for confidence: The fact-checking report is highly detailed regarding the nature of the scam, the specific media manipulated, and the verification steps taken with government and media officials. There is no ambiguity that the video is an AI-generated deepfake used for a financial scam.

An AI-generated deepfake and cloned voice of Sri Lankan President Anura Kumara Dissanayake were used to promote a fraudulent government investment scheme. While the incident impersonated a head of state, its primary objective was financial fraud and credential harvesting rather than political subversion, representing a minor national security impact that was managed through standard procedures.

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

Threat characteristics

• Imminence: Long-term. The immediate scam has been identified and debunked by authorities, representing an ongoing strategic concern regarding synthetic media rather than an active crisis.
• Autonomy: Human-controlled. The AI tools were directly operated by human scammers to generate synthetic voice and video content, with no autonomous decision-making by the AI system.
• Novelty: Established threat. Using deepfakes of political figures to conduct financial scams and phishing campaigns is an established threat method observed globally.

Impact by dimension

• Physical security: Negligible. The incident involved synthetic media for a financial scam and did not affect physical systems, critical infrastructure, or human safety.
• Information security: Minor. The incident utilized an AI-generated deepfake and voice cloning to spread disinformation, but it was aimed at financial fraud rather than state-sponsored intelligence or information warfare.
• Sovereignty: Minor. While the Sri Lankan President was impersonated to fabricate a government scheme, the impact was limited to a financial scam and did not disrupt core government operations or decision-making.
• Economic security: Minor. The scam targeted individual citizens for financial fraud and credential harvesting, posing minor risks to individual economic security but no threat to national financial stability.
• Societal stability: Minor. The deepfake contributes to epistemic harm and erodes public trust in official communications, but did not cause large-scale civil unrest or systematic human rights violations.