Martin Lewis says he has ‘no faith’ in social media firms after scammers were able to post deepfake ads showing his wife being attacked by an ‘immigrant’ to promote sham ‘Quantum AI’ investment
Martin Lewis says he has ‘no faith’ in social media companies after fraudsters posted a deepfake video showing his wife being attacked by a migrant.
The 53-year-old broadcaster has long expressed frustration with the alarming rise of AI-generated images, which he has claimed in the past have made him ‘feel sick’.
Deepfakes are images, pornographic or otherwise, that are often digitally manipulated for the purpose of creating fraud or spreading misinformation.
Lewis took to Facebook on Monday after receiving messages from “concerned friends” who noticed a video showing his wife, Lara Lewington, being beaten.
The clip was created to promote the ‘Quantum Artificial Intelligence’ investment plan allegedly pioneered by Martin Lewis, but this was a complete hoax.
Lewis wrote: ‘If I thought the scammers couldn’t get any lower, now they’ve made deepfake ads featuring a purported video of my wife Lara Lewington being beaten by an ‘immigrant’ while being denied entry to the ‘Martin Lewis’ Quantum AI’ investment program as not suitable for ‘foreigners’.
‘We received worried messages from our friends. Social media companies have no problem getting paid to broadcast these attempts by aggressive, fake, organized criminals to defraud people!
‘Obviously if you see these please report them. But I have no faith that any of these companies will solve this nonsense because they make too much money. And enforcement of the Online Safety Act’s fraudulent advertising rules is continually being delayed.’
Martin Lewis says he has ‘no faith’ in social media companies after scammers published a deepfake video featuring his wife
Lewis said the video featured his wife, Lara Lewington, being beaten by an immigrant as part of an investment scheme scam.
In fact, this isn’t the first time Lewis has been outraged by a fake video circulating online.
In 2023, the money-saving expert was ‘horrified’ when he saw a doppelganger encouraging people to sign up for an Elon Musk-backed investment scheme. Actually it was a scam.
Lewis told BBC Radio 4 at the time: ‘My name and face have been the subject of fraudulent advertising for years. I receive countless reports every day.
‘My friends would contact me from time to time and say: ‘Hey, I invested some money in the investment plan you advertise’.
‘I don’t advertise, I don’t invest.’
There has been an alarming increase in the use of deepfake images across all social media platforms, especially on Musk’s X website.
In January, Prime Minister Keir Starmer promised to take ‘necessary action’ against X to stop trolls using AI tool ‘Grok’ to create manipulated images of women in bikinis and suggestive images of children.
Addressing backbenchers last week, Sir Keir called Grok ‘disgusting’ and said the government would ‘strengthen existing laws’ and ‘prepare legislation if it needs to go further’.
In response, Technology Minister Liz Kendall said the government would ban nudification devices by amending the Crime and Policing Bill, which is currently at report stage in the Lords.
It comes after the Labor government announced that children under 16 could be banned from social media before the end of the year.
After announcing plans for an Australian-style ban on children using social media last month, Starmer said the government wanted to take action ‘within months, not years’.
The plan will start this month and be reported within 12 weeks, giving ministers the opportunity to change the law before 2027.
“We also need to act very quickly, not only on age concerns, but also on devices and applications that auto-scroll, constantly sticking to the machine where you can never stop scrolling,” the Prime Minister said.
