New research has shed light on the growing use of deepfakes that spoof current US officials.
Research from Cyber news has claimed that over the past two years there have been 156 deepfake incidents targeting US officials currently serving, including President Trump and Vice President Vance.
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Deep false growth
Cybernews’ research was based on data from the Resemble.ai deepfake incident database, which includes over 2,000 cases as of March 11, 2024.
The report found that President Donald Trump accounted for 90 of the 156 recorded cases alone, or 58% of all deepfake incidents in the dataset.
This is perhaps not too surprising since Trump seems to be a particular fan of posting mocked or deepfaked photos of himself in new roles or disguises on his Truth Social network.
Marco Rubio (13 cases) and JD Vance (12 cases) came next, with the three accounting for nearly three-quarters of all reported cases.
The most targeted Democrat was Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez with 9 cases, followed by Amy Klobuchar (6 cases) and Hakeem Jeffries (5 cases).
These small numbers highlight how scammers use a select group of highly recognizable characters to capture interest and trap victims.
The use of deepfakes is of particular concern as the US midterm elections draw ever closer, with scammers or hackers potentially using the technology to promote inaccurate or false views.
As always, we encourage everyone to be extra cautious when viewing or clicking on potentially questionable online postings, especially if it’s a site you don’t visit regularly or have never heard of.
Be especially wary of websites that ask for personal information, especially payment or card details.
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