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The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) warned the public against fraudulent cryptocurrency investment schemes promoted through deepfake videos and audio recordings featuring prominent businessman Lance Gokongwei.
Usage of Lance Gokongwei Deepfake for Crypto Scams
In an advisory, the SEC’s Enforcement and Investor Protection Department stated that scammers have been using AI-generated content to falsely portray the president and CEO of JG Summit Holdings Inc., and other well-known personalities endorsing cryptocurrency, forex, and other digital asset investments.
The Commission added that these manipulated materials are being widely circulated on social media to trick individuals into investing in fake or illegal cryptocurrency ventures.
In addition, the SEC said victims are misled into registering on a trading platform based in Nicosia, Cyprus, where they are asked to provide credit card information and one-time passwords. Once they input these details, victims reportedly lose contact with the platform and are unable to retrieve their funds.
“Consequently, the public is warned to avoid interacting with suspicious advertisements, websites, or social media accounts that claim to offer investment opportunities endorsed by popular personalities. To be secure, always check with the SEC to confirm the legitimacy of the offering, the offeree, and the security or investment product being offered.”
Securities and Exchange Commission
In a separate advisory, the Gokongwei Group issued a warning to the public against increasingly sophisticated investment scams that falsely use endorsements from well-known personalities, including through AI-generated deepfakes.
“We are reissuing this advisory to warn the public anew to refrain from engaging in any content that uses the image or likeness of JG Summit President and CEO Lance Gokongwei to promote investment opportunities. Mr. Gokongwei is not in any way connected with nor endorsing these investment opportunities.”
Gokongwei Group
The group urges vigilance when interacting with websites, social media accounts, and links, and advises reporting suspicious ads to Meta.
Gokongwei is a prominent Filipino businessman. He is the only son of the late tycoon John Gokongwei Jr., founder of one of the Philippines’ largest conglomerates and is known for expanding the family’s business across aviation, retail, food, energy, and telecom.
The Gokongwei family owns major companies including JG Summit Holdings, Universal Robina Corporation, Robinsons Retail Holdings, Robinsons Land Corporation, Cebu Pacific, GoTyme Bank, JG Summit Olefins, Meralco, DHL Summit Solutions, Data Analytics Ventures, and Singapore Land Group.
To report scams involving deepfake crypto promotions or for further inquiries, the SEC encourages the public to contact its Enforcement and Investor Protection Department at (02) 8818-7650 or (02) 8818-6047, or email epd@sec.gov.ph.
What is a Deepfake?
A deepfake is synthetic media generated using artificial intelligence and machine learning to alter or fabricate faces, voices, or actions in videos, images, or audio recordings.
This technology can convincingly depict people saying or doing things they never actually did. As deepfakes become more advanced, they pose serious challenges to identifying real content, making fact-checking and media literacy crucial in combating misinformation.
Rise of Deepfake Videos Used in Crypto Scams
In March, a deepfake video falsely claiming that President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. blocked a cryptocurrency platform linked to Elon Musk circulated on Facebook, using AI-manipulated footage to promote a fraudulent investment scheme.
- The video, styled to resemble an ABS-CBN News Patrol broadcast, alleged that the Philippine government was hiding Musk’s platform, which could supposedly make Filipinos earn millions with a ₱15,000 deposit.
- Fact-checked by PressOne.PH, the video was confirmed fake, with original clips taken from unrelated events involving both Musk and Marcos Jr., neither of whom mentioned cryptocurrency or government restrictions.
Accordingly, the 2025 Anti-Scam Research Report by Bitget, SlowMist, and Elliptic revealed that the use of AI-generated deepfakes in cryptocurrency scams surged in 2024, contributing to $4.6 billion in losses, marking a 24% increase from the previous year.
- The report noted that nearly 40% of high-value frauds involved deepfakes, which are now commonly used to promote fake investment schemes, fraudulent tokens, and even bypass identity verification on major platforms.
- Scammers are disguising classic pyramid and Ponzi schemes as DeFi, NFT, or GameFi projects, enhanced with convincing visuals like AI-generated team profiles and fake KYC documents.
- Moreover, the data highlighted that at least 87 deepfake scam rings were dismantled across Asia in the first quarter of 2025.
This article is published on BitPinas: SEC Warns Public of Crypto Scams Using Deepfake Videos of Lance Gokongwei
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