Purported AI Deepfake Reportedly Impersonated Thai PBS World Anchor and Miss Universe CEO in Fraudulent Investment Video

A purported deepfake video allegedly used AI-generated visuals and synthetic speech to impersonate Thai PBS World anchor Doliyana Bunnak and Miss Universe Organization CEO Anne Jakkraphong Jakrajutatip, falsely promoting an online investment promising rapid, high returns. The clip was reportedly derived from a June 24 2025 Thai PBS World Tonight broadcast and circulated on Facebook, misusing news logos and likenesses, causing reputational harm and exposing viewers to financial fraud.

Risk classification

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

The deepfake video was created by malicious actors to impersonate public figures and run a fraudulent investment scam to deceive victims for financial gain.

Additional risk subdomains

• 3.1 False or misleading information: The deepfake video generated and spread false information about a government-certified investment platform to mislead viewers.

Causal factors

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

The incident was caused by malicious human actors who intentionally created and deployed deepfake videos to execute a financial scam.

EU AI Act risk tier

• Risk tier: 3 Limited Risk

Limited Risk: The report describes AI-generated deepfakes, which are subject to specific transparency obligations under the EU AI Act to ensure users are informed of their synthetic nature.

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 Doliyana Bunnak, Unknown scammers impersonating Anne Jakkraphong Jakrajutatip, Unknown scammers
• Alleged harmed parties: Thairath TV, Thai social media users, Thai PBS World, Thai Facebook users, Investors in Thailand, General public of Thailand, Epsitemic integrity, Doliyana Bunnak, Anne Jakkraphong Jakrajutatip

Harm severity

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 Minor, indirect Negligible
• Psychological: direct Negligible, indirect Negligible
• Epistemic: direct Minor, indirect Negligible
• Child sexual exploitation and abuse: direct Negligible, indirect Negligible

Malicious content

Reported: The report explicitly describes the creation and distribution of a malicious deepfake video designed to scam viewers.

Directly caused: A 2-minute malicious deepfake video was created and distributed via Facebook ads, reaching over 12,000 views.

Indirectly caused: N/A

Inferred additional harm: N/A

Privacy

Reported: The report explicitly describes unauthorized use of personal data (likeness, voice, and name) under Thai privacy laws.

Directly caused: The scammers used the faces, voices, and names of Doliyana Bunnak and Anne Jakkraphong without consent to generate synthetic media.

Indirectly caused: N/A

Inferred additional harm: N/A

Epistemic

Reported: The report explicitly describes epistemic harm through the fabrication of a news broadcast and false investment claims, which damages media credibility.

Directly caused: The deepfake fabricated a Thai PBS World news broadcast, directly undermining the public trust and credibility of the news organization and its anchor.

Indirectly caused: N/A

Inferred additional harm: The proliferation of such highly realistic news deepfakes could lead to broader public skepticism and erosion of trust in legitimate news media.

People affected

• Occurrences reported: 1
• People reportedly harmed: 2
• People reportedly exposed: 12000

Potential causes

Management

• Platform Growth Over Safety: Ad monetization prioritized over rigorous safety checks for sponsored content.
• Lack of Corporate Risk Mitigation: Thai PBS faces ongoing reputational damage without active platform protection.

Technology

• Advanced AI Deepfake Tech: Highly realistic synthesis of voice and facial movements fooled viewers.
• Imperfect Lip Sync Generation: Visual artifacts like blurry mouths and unsynced audio revealed the fake.

Data Inputs

• Unauthorized Media Scraping: Original broadcast clips were scraped to train or drive the deepfake model.
• Misuse of Personal Identity Data: Anchor's face and voice were used without consent to create fraud videos.

Human Factors

• Viewer Credibility Misjudgment: Viewers might believe fake news reports due to realistic anchor appearance.
• Targeting Vulnerable Groups: Scammers targeted students and general public with high-return promises.

Process and Methods

• Flawed Social Media Ad Vetting: Facebook allowed paid distribution of deepfake scam ads without verification.
• Slow Law Enforcement Action: Police reports filed by victims showed no progress, allowing scams to persist.

Regulatory Environment

• Inadequate Law Enforcement: Despite Computer Crimes Act and PDPA, enforcement against deepfakes is slow.

Information quality

• Classification confidence: High
• Reason for confidence: The report from Thai PBS Verify is highly detailed, providing specific context about the deepfake, the original source videos, the platforms used, the views, and direct quotes from the affected anchor. The facts are clear and verified by experts.

Malicious actors used AI-generated deepfakes of a Thai news anchor and a prominent CEO to execute a fraudulent investment scheme on Facebook. While causing reputational harm and highlighting the challenges of synthetic media verification, the incident remains a localized criminal fraud case with minor national security implications.

• Overall national security impact: Minor
• Response level: Moderate
• Scope: Single nation
• Primary target: Thailand
• Alleged perpetrator: Unknown

Threat characteristics

• Imminence: Long-term. Represents an ongoing capability concern regarding cyber-enabled fraud rather than an active crisis requiring urgent national security response.
• Autonomy: Human-controlled. The AI system was used as a static content-generation tool by human operators to create synthetic media, with no autonomous decision-making.
• Novelty: Established threat. The use of deepfakes to impersonate public figures and media anchors for financial scams is a well-established and frequently observed threat vector.

Impact by dimension

• Physical security: Negligible. The incident is a digital financial scam with no threat to physical systems, critical infrastructure, or human safety.
• Information security: Minor. While the deepfake impersonated a news anchor and fabricated a broadcast, its intent was financial fraud rather than state-sponsored information warfare or targeting national intelligence.
• Sovereignty: Negligible. The scam falsely claimed government certification but did not compromise actual government decision-making, electoral systems, or state sovereignty.
• Economic security: Negligible. The incident was a localized consumer investment scam and did not target strategic industries, critical financial systems, or national technological security.
• Societal stability: Minor. Caused personal distress to the impersonated individuals and potential financial loss to some citizens, but did not threaten societal-scale stability or civil liberties.