Purported Deepfakes of Public Figures and Celebrities Reportedly Used to Market Honey-Based Supplements as Alzheimer's Treatments

Beginning around October 2025, a campaign reportedly used AI-generated videos and cloned voices of well-known public figures and celebrities such as Bill Gates, Sanjay Gupta, Anderson Cooper, Bruce Willis, and others to market honey-based supplements as treatments for Alzheimer's disease and dementia. Consumers reportedly said modest purchases sometimes led to continuing charges or unwanted shipments, while cancellation and refund requests were difficult to resolve.

Risk classification

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

The incident involves scammers using AI-generated deepfakes of celebrities to deceive individuals into purchasing fake medical cures, resulting in financial fraud.

Additional risk subdomains

• 3.1 False or misleading information: The deepfakes spread false medical claims that honey can cure Alzheimer's, misleading consumers about health treatments.

Causal factors

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

The incident was driven by human scammers who intentionally deployed AI-generated deepfakes post-deployment to defraud consumers.

EU AI Act risk tier

• Risk tier: 3 Limited Risk

Risk Level 3. Limited Risk: The report describes 'AI-generated content such as deepfakes' used to promote products. Under the EU AI Act, deepfakes are classified as limited risk, requiring transparency obligations to inform users they are interacting with AI-generated media.

AI system and alleged parties

• AI system: unspecified
• AI purpose: Deepfake Video Generation; Voice Generation
• Behaviour type: Tool
• Alleged developer: Synthetic video generation technology developers, Synthetic media generation technology developers, Synthetic audio generation technology developers, Deepfake technology developers
• Alleged deployer: Scammers impersonating Sanjay Gupta, Scammers impersonating Bruce Willis, Scammers impersonating Bill Gates, Scammers impersonating Anderson Cooper, Scammers, Deepfake creators
• Alleged harmed parties: Victims of deepfake-enabled fraud, Social media users, Scam victims, Sanjay Gupta, public figures, People with dementia and their families and caregivers, People with Alzheimer's disease and their families and caregivers, People seeking medical advice, Facebook users, Consumers, celebrities, Bruce Willis, Bill Gates, Anderson Cooper

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

Malicious content

Reported: Yes, the report describes malicious deepfake videos created to deceive consumers.

Directly caused: Scammers created and spread AI-generated deepfake videos of celebrities on Facebook to promote a fraudulent cure.

Inferred additional harm: It is likely that many more deepfake videos and ads were generated and distributed across various social media platforms, reaching thousands of users.

Privacy

Reported: Yes, the report notes that scammers obtained credit card numbers, addresses, and health concerns.

Directly caused: Scammers obtained the credit card numbers, physical addresses, and email addresses of victims who attempted to purchase the product.

Indirectly caused: Victims received unsolicited follow-up phone calls and health questionnaires via email, indicating their contact details and health concerns were harvested.

Inferred additional harm: Victims' personal and financial data may have been sold or shared with other malicious actors, exposing them to further privacy violations and identity theft risks.

Epistemic

Reported: Yes, the report describes the generation and spread of false medical claims using deepfakes of trusted public figures.

Directly caused: The AI-generated videos falsely claimed that honey-based supplements could cure or reverse Alzheimer's disease and dementia, misleading viewers.

Indirectly caused: The unauthorized use of celebrity likenesses (Bill Gates, Anderson Cooper, Bruce Willis, Dr. Sanjay Gupta) eroded public trust in these individuals and the information ecosystem.

Inferred additional harm: The proliferation of highly realistic medical deepfakes contributes to a broader erosion of shared reality and trust in legitimate medical advice.

People affected

• Occurrences reported: 1
• People reportedly harmed: 5
• People reportedly exposed: 10

Potential causes

Management

• Platform Profit Over Safety: Social media platforms prioritized ad revenue over strict safety vetting.
• Inadequate Risk Assessment: Failure of platforms to anticipate AI-enabled fraud vectors.

Technology

• AI Deepfake Video Generation: Realistic AI-generated videos of celebrities were used to deceive victims.
• Unregulated AI Video Tools: Powerful AI tools allowed scammers to easily synthesize celebrity voices.

Data Inputs

• Celebrity Likeness Training Data: AI models trained on public videos of celebrities to create deepfakes.
• Falsified Health Questionnaires: Scammers collected personal health data to customize high-pressure sales.

Human Factors

• Trust in Public Figures: Victims trusted the deepfaked endorsements of familiar celebrities.
• Fear of Cognitive Decline: Exploitation of fears related to Alzheimer's and dementia.
• Low Digital Media Literacy: Difficulty distinguishing between genuine videos and AI deepfakes.

Process and Methods

• Weak Ad Moderation Processes: Social media platforms failed to detect and block AI-generated scam ads.
• Deceptive Subscription Billing: Scammers used hidden recurring charges and complex cancellation flows.
• High-Pressure Sales Funnel: Urgent warnings and follow-up calls forced quick purchases.

Regulatory Environment

• Lack of Deepfake Regulations: Inadequate legal frameworks to prevent the malicious use of AI deepfakes.
• Weak Online Advertising Oversight: Regulatory gaps in monitoring truth-in-advertising on social platforms.

Information quality

• Classification confidence: High
• Reason for confidence: The reports provide clear, consistent accounts of the scam, including a detailed first-hand victim report with specific financial losses ($2,003) and a warning from the Better Business Bureau. The role of AI (deepfakes and voice clones) is explicitly stated, and the fraudulent nature of the campaign is verified by the BBB, the Alzheimer's Association, and Bill Gates's office.
• Ambiguities identified: The specific AI tools or platforms used to generate the deepfakes and voice clones are not identified.
• Alternative interpretations: None. The evidence clearly points to a coordinated financial scam using synthetic media.

This incident involves a sophisticated consumer fraud campaign utilizing AI-generated deepfakes and voice clones of prominent figures to sell fraudulent medical treatments. While it highlights the growing ease of generating highly convincing synthetic media for malicious purposes, its national security impact is minor, representing localized criminal activity rather than a threat to state security.

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

Threat characteristics

• Imminence: Long-term. The incident represents an ongoing, low-level commercial fraud risk rather than an imminent national security crisis.
• Autonomy: Human-controlled. The AI systems were used as static content generation tools directly controlled and deployed by human operators.
• Novelty: Evolved capability. Demonstrates an advanced integration of multi-modal deepfakes (video and voice cloning) of multiple prominent figures to conduct highly targeted fraud.

Impact by dimension

• Physical security: Negligible. No physical infrastructure, kinetic targeting systems, or critical services were affected by this consumer-focused scam.
• Information security: Minor. Involves synthetic media and voice clones of high-profile individuals, but deployed for financial fraud rather than state-sponsored intelligence or geopolitical influence operations.
• Sovereignty: Negligible. No impact on state authority, electoral processes, or core government decision-making functions.
• Economic security: Negligible. While causing individual financial losses, the incident does not threaten strategic industries, critical supply chains, or systemic financial stability.
• Societal stability: Minor. Exploits vulnerable populations suffering from cognitive decline through deceptive medical claims, posing minor localized societal harm but no threat to overall social cohesion.