Purported Deepfake of Greek Finance Minister Kyriakos Pierrakakis Reportedly Used in Facebook Investment Scam

Greek Finance Minister Kyriakos Pierrakakis and the Ministry of Economy and Finance reportedly filed a lawsuit against unidentified operators of a Facebook page that allegedly used AI to generate a deepfake video falsely depicting the minister endorsing fraudulent "high-yield" investment schemes. Authorities noted this follows similar deepfake-driven scams in Greece involving impersonation of public figures for illicit financial gain.

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 official to run a fraudulent investment scam, which directly falls under fraud, scams, and targeted manipulation.

Additional risk subdomains

• 3.1 False or misleading information: The deepfake video generated and spread false information by depicting the minister endorsing a non-existent investment program.

Causal factors

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

The incident was caused by human actors intentionally deploying an AI-generated deepfake post-deployment to run a fraudulent investment scam.

EU AI Act risk tier

• Risk tier: 3 Limited Risk

Risk Level 3: Limited Risk. The report explicitly mentions that under the EU's AI Act, 'deepfakes are categorized as limited risk', which requires transparency obligations to ensure users are informed.

AI system and alleged parties

• AI system: None named
• 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 Kyriakos Pierrakakis, Unknown scammers
• Alleged harmed parties: Ministry of Economy and Finance of Greece, Kyriakos Pierrakakis, Investors, Greek investors, Government of Greece, General public of Greece, General public, Epistemic integrity

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 the creation and spread of a malicious deepfake video used for financial fraud.

Directly caused: The deepfake video falsely depicted the minister endorsing a scam investment program on a Facebook page.

Inferred additional harm: It is likely that similar malicious deepfake ads reached thousands of Facebook users before being taken down.

Epistemic

Reported: Yes, the report describes the fabrication of a video falsely showing the minister encouraging citizens to invest in high-yield programs.

Directly caused: The deepfake video falsely portrayed the minister promoting fraudulent investment schemes, which the ministry stated bears no connection to reality.

Inferred additional harm: The proliferation of such deepfakes makes it harder for citizens to distinguish between real and fabricated statements by public officials.

People affected

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

Potential causes

Technology

• AI Deepfake Generation: AI used to create a realistic fabricated video of Minister Pierrakakis.
• Deceptive Ad Distribution: Facebook page used to distribute fake video as sponsored advertisements.

Data Inputs

• Impersonation Data Exploitation: Exploitation of public media of the minister to generate realistic deepfake.

Human Factors

• Malicious Actor Exploitation: Unidentified operators created deepfakes to defraud citizens for profit.

Process and Methods

• Inadequate Ad Screening: Platform failed to detect and block AI-generated scam ads before publication.

Regulatory Environment

• Limited Risk Classification: Under EU AI Act, deepfakes are classified as limited risk, limiting oversight.

Information quality

• Classification confidence: High
• Reason for confidence: The report clearly outlines the nature of the incident (a deepfake scam targeting a minister), the legal action taken, and the broader context of deepfake scams in Greece. The roles of the actors and the AI's involvement are unambiguous.
• Ambiguities identified: The specific AI tools used to generate the deepfakes are not identified, and the exact number of victims or financial losses from this specific scam is not detailed.
• Alternative interpretations: None. The incident is a straightforward case of deepfake-enabled financial fraud.

Unidentified actors used AI-generated deepfakes to impersonate the Greek Finance Minister in a fraudulent Facebook investment scheme. While targeting a high-profile government official, the incident represents localized financial fraud rather than a coordinated threat to national security, sovereignty, or critical infrastructure.

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

Threat characteristics

• Imminence: Long-term. Represents an ongoing strategic concern regarding the proliferation of deepfakes rather than an active, imminent national security crisis.
• Autonomy: Human-controlled. The AI was used as a tool by human operators to generate specific deepfake content, with no autonomous decision-making by the system.
• Novelty: Established threat. Deepfake financial scams impersonating public figures are an established threat with similar incidents occurring previously in Greece and globally.

Impact by dimension

• Physical security: Negligible. No physical systems, critical infrastructure, or human safety threats were involved in or affected by this incident.
• Information security: Minor. The incident involved a deepfake targeting a government minister, but it was used for financial fraud rather than a coordinated state-sponsored disinformation campaign.
• Sovereignty: Minor. A government minister was impersonated, but this did not disrupt core government operations, decision-making, or constitutional processes.
• Economic security: Minor. The deepfake targeted citizens with financial scams, but it posed no systemic threat to Greece's financial stability or strategic industries.
• Societal stability: Minor. The scam could slightly erode public trust in official communications, but it does not represent mass surveillance or large-scale societal instability.