Short answer: A celebrity deepfake in an ad is an artificially generated video or recording in which a well-known person supposedly recommends an investment they never recommended. You can spot it by four groups of signals: flaws in the image and voice, a promise of risk-free profit, time pressure, and a suspicious website the ad leads to. The most important rule is this: a famous person’s face is not proof, so check the offer in an independent source before you give out any information.
You see an ad on Facebook: a well-known athlete, politician, or CEO of a large company says that “ordinary people” are earning thousands a week on a new platform. It looks credible, and the voice sounds familiar. This is how a fake deepfake ad works, and in recent years it has affected hundreds of famous people in Poland and around the world. In this guide you’ll find 15 documented examples, specific warning signs, a 60-second verification test, and the story of Rafał Brzoska, who openly fights such ads.
What a deepfake in an ad is and why a familiar face increases trust
A deepfake is material (video, image, or audio) created or altered with artificial intelligence to show a real person who never said or did any such thing. In investment scams, criminals clone a celebrity’s face and voice, match the lip movements to an invented script, and insert the recording into a template resembling a news program.
According to a May 2024 NASK analysis, seconds of recording are enough to clone a voice, and more expressive speech can be obtained from about a minute of material. That’s why anyone who has ever spoken publicly can become a victim.
Four psychological mechanisms a deepfake relies on
- Borrowed authority. If someone famous and respected recommends it, the offer must be fine.
- Apparent credibility of the format. A news ticker, a news site’s logo, and a TV studio are meant to suggest that this is real press material.
- Time pressure and exclusivity. “Access only for the first 100 people” cuts down the time to think it over.
- Emotions instead of arguments. The promise of financial freedom appeals to dreams, not facts.
How the scam works step by step: from an ad to losing your savings
The deepfake itself is only the beginning. The real loss comes later and usually follows a similar pattern, described by CSIRT KNF and industry media, among others.
An ad with a celebrity deepfake
A paid ad on social media promises quick, sure profit and often looks like an article from a well-known news site.
A website imitating a professional platform
After clicking, you land on a page that asks for your name, phone number, and email. Sometimes it’s a copy of the website of a well-known institution or event.
A call from an “advisor” or an invitation to a group
The scammer calls, talks you into a first deposit, and often asks you to install a remote-access program. Another variant is an “exclusive” group on WhatsApp or Telegram with supposed tips. Vishing works the same way; we write about it in the article The Bank Is Calling: 5 Questions That Expose Vishing in 30 Seconds.
Showcase “profits” and more deposits
On a fake dashboard, virtual profits grow to encourage you to deposit larger amounts.
Account takeover and disappearance
Once the victim is convinced, the scammer asks for account login details or another transfer. Then contact breaks off, and the money is hard to recover.
15 examples: deepfakes of famous people in fake ads
The table below collects documented cases from Polish and international sources (you’ll find links to them in the sources section). It shows that scammers use the likeness of politicians, athletes, journalists, doctors, and even brands.
| # | Who or what | What the ad promised | How the scam was detected |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Rafał Brzoska (CEO of InPost) | Fake investments on Facebook (including March 2024) | NASK analysis, later actions by UODO (Poland’s data protection authority) and a court (described below) |
| 2 | Robert Lewandowski | The “Immediate Matrix” platform, big profits in a few weeks (July 2024) | A mechanical voice without breaths, lip movement out of sync with speech, a clip from a real interview, an account created on the day of publication |
| 3 | Donald Tusk | An investment platform, PLN 30,000 a week (October 2025) | The lips kept moving after the audio ended, odd phrases, the material came from a real speech with completely different content, a link to a fake website |
| 4 | Andrzej Duda | Exceptionally profitable investments (May 2024) | NASK warning |
| 5 | Izabela Leszczyna (then Minister of Health) | Exceptionally profitable investments (May 2024) | NASK warning |
| 6 | Kamil Labudda (influencer) | Exceptionally profitable investments (May 2024) | NASK warning |
| 7 | Piotr Kraśko, Danuta Holecka, Wojciech Cejrowski | Calls to invest | NASK analysis from July 2024: journalists are the most frequently impersonated group (32% of cases) |
| 8 | Monika Olejnik, Paulina Smaszcz | Promoting the purchase of a drug | NASK analysis from July 2024 |
| 9 | Prof. Jerzy Szaflik (ophthalmologist) | Promoting a drug he never recommended | He found out thanks to information from a patient |
| 10 | Omena Mensah (journalist) | Ads posing as news, including about her death or arrest | A complaint to UODO covering 263 ads |
| 11 | Żabka Polska (brand) | Quick money on an “investment platform” (October 2024) | CSIRT KNF warning |
| 12 | Martin Wolf (Financial Times journalist) | Fake investment offers (2025) | The avatar reached almost a million Meta users in the EU, according to media reports |
| 13 | Martin Lewis (financial expert, United Kingdom) | An alleged investment involving Elon Musk (July 2023) | Lewis himself warned that this was the first deepfake of him in a scam; Meta removed the ads |
| 14 | Taylor Swift | Free Le Creuset cookware “due to a packaging error” (January 2024) | Le Creuset denied any involvement; Meta removed the ad |
| 15 | Tom Hanks and MrBeast | A dental plan and an iPhone 15 Pro for $2 (October 2023) | Hanks himself warned fans on Instagram; the MrBeast video appeared on TikTok |
A common pattern across all the examples
Although the faces and languages differ, the pattern repeats: a famous person, a dramatic pretext (an error, a unique opportunity, “an elite secret”), a promise of quick profit or a free prize, and a link to a page where you have to enter your details. If you recognize this pattern, you’ll recognize the scam even when the deepfake is technically perfect.
How to spot a deepfake and a fake ad: 17 specific signals
A single signal isn’t conclusive, but several at once are very strong evidence of a scam. NASK stresses that the best defense is to judge the content itself, not just how the video looks and sounds. That’s why we’ve divided the signals into four groups.
Group 1: signals in the image and sound
- The lip movement doesn’t match the words. In the ad featuring Donald Tusk, the lips kept moving after the audio ended (Demagog).
- The voice is flat and mechanical. In the Lewandowski case, Demagog pointed to the lack of audible breaths and unnatural sentence intonation.
- Blurring around the mouth, strange teeth, stiff facial expressions. NASK lists such artifacts as technical signs of a deepfake.
- Errors in numbers, amounts, and names. A synthetic voice often mispronounces numbers, dates, and proper names.
- Changes in tone or accent during speech and noise or “grain” laid over the image to mask imperfections.
Group 2: signals in what is said
- A guarantee of profit without risk. According to the Ministry of Digital Affairs, a promise of high returns with no risk of loss is a typical sign of a scam.
- Time pressure and limited spots. Slogans like “only for the first 100 participants” are meant to switch off your thinking.
- A famous person talks about something they’ve never done. The original Tusk speech contained not a single word about investments, and Lewandowski did not mention any platform in the real interview.
- Strange or contradictory wording. The Tusk ad included, among other things, a statement about “access for 500 new users,” which clashed with the rest of the message.
Group 3: signals in the ad itself and the profile
- The ad pretends to be an article from a well-known news site. A fake news ticker, logo, and studio are meant to build credibility, and the ministry explicitly describes this as a warning sign.
- The advertiser’s profile is new and empty. The account with the Lewandowski ad was created the same day and had no other posts or reviews.
- The ad is about something the person doesn’t promote on their official profiles. Real collaborations are usually also visible on the celebrity’s official accounts.
- Well-known brands used as bait. Examples from Poland include Żabka, PKO Bank Polski, XTB, and Orlen, whose names or logos were used in fake offers.
Group 4: signals on the landing page and after clicking
- The website address doesn’t match the advertised brand. In the Tusk case, the link led to a site impersonating an Economic Forum. We described the rules for reading addresses in the article How to Read a URL and Domain Before You Even Click a Link.
- A contact form instead of terms of service and company details. No tax ID, address, or terms of service is a reason to leave the site.
- A call from an “advisor” pushing you to make a transfer. This is a sign that the contact has turned from an ad into classic fraud.
- A request to install a remote-access program or for your bank login details. A trustworthy company shouldn’t require this.
| Signal | Why it’s a red flag | What to do |
|---|---|---|
| Profit without risk | Legitimate investments always involve risk | Close the ad and report it to the platform |
| Mouth and voice errors | Typical artifacts of face and voice cloning | Watch the video again, muting and unmuting the sound |
| A fake news ticker | An imitation news site is meant to replace proof | Go to the real news site yourself and look for this information |
| A new advertiser account | Scammers create profiles just for a campaign | Check the creation date and the page history |
| A foreign domain | The site doesn’t belong to the advertised brand | Check the address and the age of the domain |
| A call from an advisor | Pushing for a deposit is a typical stage of the scam | Hang up and don’t pay anything |
| Remote access | It gives the scammer control over your phone | Don’t install anything |
The 60-second test: how to check a suspicious deepfake ad
Before you click “Sign up,” follow the steps below. They’ll take you about a minute.
Stop and don’t click
The ad is designed to make you click on impulse. Wait a moment and ask yourself: does this famous person really recommend things like this?
Check the person’s official sources
Go to their verified profiles or website. If the collaboration is real, you’ll find information about it. If not, you can also look at fact-checking sites such as Demagog, which describe many of these ads.
Use a reverse image search or search a phrase from the ad
Search Google for part of the ad’s slogan, or run a reverse image search on a frame from the video. This is how Demagog found the original Tusk speech that the deepfake was made from. We describe these methods in the article Fact-Checking Step by Step.
Check the company, the website address, and its history
Verify the domain, look up the company in official registries, and check the site’s archive. You’ll find a ready-made checklist in the article How to Check Whether an Online Store Really Exists. For investment matters, also check the official databases and warnings of the Polish Financial Supervision Authority (KNF).
Report it and don’t share it
Report the ad and the profile to the platform, and the fake website to CERT Polska. The Ministry of Digital Affairs also asks people not to share such offers further, because you expose others to losses.
If you want to check whether a specific recording or photo was generated by AI, see the article How to Check Whether a Photo, Video, or Text Was Generated by AI.
Rafał Brzoska vs. fake deepfake ads: the story of one of the most high-profile fights
InPost CEO Rafał Brzoska is one of the faces most often used in fake ads in Poland. His likeness and that of his wife, journalist Omena Mensah, appeared in ads on Facebook and Instagram. Importantly, the Brzoskas didn’t stop at warnings: they took legal and public action that became a reference point for the entire debate on platform accountability. Below we describe the facts from documented sources. Some assessments, especially about the scale of the problem and the platform’s responsibility, come from Brzoska himself or his foundation, and Meta disagrees with them.
What the fake ads featuring Brzoska and Mensah looked like
According to media reports, the paid ads looked like material from news services. In some, a deepfake of Brzoska promoted fake investment platforms. Others featured made-up reports about Omena Mensah, including her arrest, beating, or death. Brzoska wrote publicly that even his children ask him about such ads. In her complaint to UODO, Mensah pointed to 263 ads.
Legal steps: UODO, the court, and a lawsuit
- August 5, 2024: The President of UODO, Mirosław Wróblewski, ordered Meta to stop displaying such content featuring the likeness of Brzoska and Mensah in Poland for three months. Meta appealed the decisions to the Voivodeship Administrative Court in Warsaw, then later withdrew the complaints, so the court discontinued the proceedings (information from March 2025).
- November 2024: Brzoska announced that the court had granted an injunction for the maximum period of one year. Under it, Meta was to face a penalty for every further deepfake ad featuring the couple’s likeness.
- December 2024: Brzoska sought other famous people, including former presidents and prime ministers, to join legal action against Meta. He told the Financial Times about roughly 150 people whose likeness had been used in this way.
- Meta’s position: the company argued that the provisions of the EU Digital Services Act (DSA) apply, and that the order would amount to general, proactive content monitoring, which the DSA prohibits.
Brzoska’s ideas for fighting fake ads
In 2026, Brzoska moved from lawsuits to systemic proposals. In August he announced a grassroots, nonpartisan initiative against online scams, modeled on his earlier deregulation campaign SprawdzaMY. The goal was to change the law so that ordinary users could more effectively protect themselves and their families.
On September 21, 2026, as part of the “150 percent” initiative, he presented three specific proposals:
| Proposal | What it involves |
|---|---|
| 1. Advertiser verification | Large platforms would check who buys an ad and who pays for it, according to the AML/KYC standards known from banks. For higher-risk entities, the beneficial owner would also be checked. An advertiser who cannot be reliably verified would not be able to launch a campaign. |
| 2. The 150% rule | If a platform runs a fraudulent ad despite verification and profits from it, it would pay an administrative fine equal to 150% of the revenue from that ad and related campaigns. In other words, it gives back all the revenue and pays an extra 50%. |
| 3. A fund for victims | Part of the fines would go to a fund supporting people who lost money or data, or suffered other harm as a result of a scam. |
According to media reports, a petition for tough sanctions collected about 167,000 signatures. For now these are proposals: the Ministry of Digital Affairs said it is analyzing them, and the sources we use don’t mention a bill having been submitted.
ScamWatch: a tool for detecting suspicious ads
The initiative also includes ScamWatch, announced at the end of August 2026. The tool, in which users can report suspicious ads, analyzes ads in the Meta Ad Library, links them to domains used by scammers, and examines how quickly platforms respond. Experts from the Rafał Brzoska Foundation work on the reports. According to a September 2026 report, more than 2 million ads were collected, of which 16.5% were flagged as suspicious and 1.6% were rated as “very high risk.”
What this story teaches us
The Brzoska case offers three practical lessons. First, even a person with considerable resources and a team of lawyers can’t quickly remove all the fake ads. Second, responsibility for ads is a dispute about law, not just technology. Third, until the rules change, you remain the first line of defense.
What to do after seeing a fake deepfake ad, and if you’ve already paid
As soon as you see a suspicious ad
- Don’t click the link and don’t enter any information.
- Report the ad and the profile to the platform’s administrators (Meta, Google).
- Report the fake website to CERT Polska through the form at incydent.cert.pl/domena or in the mObywatel app, in the “Safe online” service.
- Don’t share the ad, not even to warn others. Instead, describe the problem in your own words and add a link to an explanation.
If you’ve already given your details or paid money
- Call your bank immediately and ask them to block your cards and try to stop the transaction.
- If you installed a remote-access program, uninstall it and change your passwords from another device.
- Report the matter to the police and keep the evidence: screenshots, the website address, phone numbers, and transfer confirmations.
- Consider restricting your PESEL number if you gave out personal data, to make it harder for anyone to take out loans in your name.
You’ll find more on what to do step by step after talking to a scammer in the article on vishing linked above.
How to help loved ones, especially older ones
Show your parents or grandparents 2–3 examples from the table above, ideally with faces they know from TV. Say it plainly: “no famous person calls you and recommends guaranteed profits.” Agree on one family rule: before anyone puts money into an investment found online, they show the offer to someone they trust. For younger family members, it’s worth adding that even a video with their “favorite YouTuber” can be fake.
Frequently asked questions about deepfakes in ads
It’s a video, image, or recording generated by artificial intelligence in which a real person supposedly promotes a product or investment, even though they never did. Scammers use a cloned voice and face of a famous person to do this.
Watch for a promise of profit without risk, time pressure, errors in lip movement and in how the voice sounds, a new or empty advertiser account, and a link to an unknown website. Also check whether the person mentions such a collaboration on their official profiles.
No. According to the Ministry of Digital Affairs, a promise of high returns with no risk of loss is a typical sign of a scam. A famous face and the logo of a large institution don’t prove that the person or company endorses the offer.
Report the ad and the profile to the platform’s administrators, for example Meta or Google, and the fake website to CERT Polska through the form at incydent.cert.pl/domena or in the mObywatel app, in the “Safe online” service.
Call your bank immediately, report the matter to the police, keep the evidence, uninstall any remote-access programs, and change your passwords. If you gave out personal data, consider restricting your PESEL number.
As part of the “150 percent” initiative, Brzoska proposes mandatory verification of advertisers according to AML/KYC standards, a fine for platforms equal to 150% of the revenue from a fraudulent ad, and a fund paying compensation to victims, financed from part of the fines. For now these are proposals, not laws in force.
This is the subject of a legal dispute. Meta cites the EU Digital Services Act (DSA) and argues that an order for proactive monitoring would be unlawful. The other side, including Brzoska, demands greater platform accountability. The case is ongoing, so for now your own caution is what matters most.
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Sources
- NASK, “NASK warns: a growing number of deepfake scams using the likenesses of famous people” (May 2024): nask.pl
- CyberDefence24, “Deepfake. Scammers impersonate journalists, politicians, athletes” (July 2024, NASK analysis): cyberdefence24.pl
- Demagog, “Tusk advertises an investment platform? It’s a deepfake” (October 3, 2025): demagog.org.pl
- Demagog, “Lewandowski encourages investing? Another AI scam” (July 11, 2024): demagog.org.pl
- Bankier.pl, “Fake photos and videos. How AI helps scammers impersonate experts and celebrities” (September 23, 2026): bankier.pl
- XYZ.pl, “Fake investments, real faces. This is how scammers steal Poles’ trust” (October 14, 2025): xyz.pl
- Antyweb, on fake ads using the Żabka brand, a CSIRT KNF announcement (October 18, 2024): antyweb.pl
- Ministry of Digital Affairs, “An ad with a famous person? Watch out, it may be a scam” (April 17, 2025): gov.pl
- TechCrunch, on the Martin Lewis deepfake (July 7, 2023): techcrunch.com
- NBC News, “That Taylor Swift AI-generated Le Creuset ad is not real”: nbcnews.com
- Synthedia, “MrBeast and Tom Hanks Followers the Latest Victims of Deepfake Scams”: synthedia.substack.com
- Fortune, on the MrBeast and Tom Hanks deepfake (October 4, 2023): fortune.com
- Trend Micro, on the fake Taylor Swift and Le Creuset ad (January 12, 2024): trendlife.com
- Prawo.pl, “Rafał Brzoska and Omena Mensah – UODO takes action on ads” (March 24, 2025): prawo.pl
- Bezprawnik, on Brzoska’s dispute with Meta and the court injunction (November 21, 2024): bezprawnik.pl
- Wirtualnemedia.pl, on the search for celebrities to join a joint lawsuit (December 5, 2024): wirtualnemedia.pl
- Proto.pl, on Brzoska’s new initiative against online scams (August 20, 2026): proto.pl
- XYZ.pl, on ScamWatch and the scale of fake ads: xyz.pl
- Portal Medialny, on proposed legal changes and platform accountability (September 23, 2026): portalmedialny.pl
- RMF24, “A fake ad should cost dearly. Brzoska proposes new sanctions” (September 2026): rmf24.pl
- Strefa Biznesu, on the end of anonymous ads and a fund for victims (September 21, 2026): strefabiznesu.pl
The descriptions of the positions of Brzoska, Meta, and ScamWatch come from statements by the parties to the dispute as reported by the media; they are not final findings of a court. This article is for informational purposes and is not legal or investment advice.