A video ad campaign on Instagram used convincing deepfakes of Goldman Sachs executives Abby Joseph Cohen and David Kostin, in addition to Michael Hewson (formerly of CMC Markets), to tempt amateurs who want to get rich quick into a stock-buying Whatsapp group. Fortune confirmed the videos were fake and Meta says it has removed the campaign from its platform.
Abby Joseph Cohen is a legend in the world of investing. She was the chief investment strategist until 2008 at Goldman Sachs, when she moved to the bank’s Global Markets Institute, before retiring from Goldman in 2021. Currently, she is a professor at Columbia Business School.
Retail investors may remember her as a frequent guest on Wall Street Week, the PBS TV show that ran for 32 years until 2002, on which the great and the good from the world of finance sat down with the late Louis Rukeyser and discussed the financial events of the preceding seven days in calm, measured tones.
So it may have come as a surprise to many to see Joseph Cohen pop up in their Instagram feeds with an offer that’s hard to refuse:
“We have found three severely undervalued technology stocks. Join my group now to get it immediately. Anyone who owns these three stocks in the next five years can retire comfortably,” the video says.
This is decidedly not something Joseph Cohen would be likely to do.
The video is fake, Fortune has confirmed, seemingly generated by AI. It’s a pretty good fake, however. Even people who have met Joseph Cohen in person would be likely to think it was real, at least on first glance.
“This is a fraudulent message and not representative of Goldman Sachs,” the bank told Fortune. “There should always be caution exercised around any unverified communication purporting to come from a Goldman Sachs employee. Customers can learn more by visiting www.gs.com/security and should report any suspected fraud by emailing [email protected],” a spokesperson said.
In fact, there is a whole raft of fake AI video chief investment officers making the rounds on social media right now. Goldman’s chief U.S. equity strategist, David Kostin, who has been at the bank for 30 years, has one. Former CMC Markets chief analyst Michael Hewson (16 years at the company) has another.
“I’ve set up a Whatsapp investment group. Every day I share three stocks,” the fake Kostin says.
Hewson has a similar pitch.
The videos don’t just look like the three execs, they sound like them too. One of the few giveaways is that their lips don’t quite match the words they are saying—a common flaw with AI deepfakes.
CMC and Meta, Instagram’s owner, also confirmed the videos were fake. The latter told Fortune the ad campaign would be taken down. “We’ve removed the content brought to our attention. People who impersonate others on Facebook and Instagram violate our policies, and we remove this content when it’s found,” a spokesperson said.
The company staging the campaign was undeterred, however. This Fortune staffer joined the fake Joseph Cohen’s Whatsapp group, just to see what was happening. An administrator sent us this message:
“Hello, investors! I am the group administrator of Horizon Investments, and I sincerely invite you to join the investment feast at 9:20 am tomorrow (EST). Our chief analyst Mr. Austin Fitch will also share his professional insights with everyone in this group.”
I declined the offer of the “feast” and sent a direct message to “Danielle Learned,” the Whatsapp contact with a St. Louis area code who recruited me. I asked her why she was using fake videos to recruit investors on Instagram. She replied: “Hello, Abby Cohen and our agency are in partnership. Abby Cohen is participating in the joint deployment of some high-quality US stock trading strategies developed by Mr. Austin of our agency.”
Again, Joseph Cohen has nothing to do with this.
Learned then recommended I buy SoFi Technologies at $11.50 per share on the Nasdaq. “Please let me know when you complete the order and I will let you know when to sell.” (We didn’t.)
A spokesperson for the real Horizon Investments told Fortune that they too had no idea their company and staff names were being used in the scam. “In no way would Horizon ever be involved in something like this nor would any of its people lend their names, images or backing to something like this,” a representative said.
The “Fitch” character on Whatsapp did not respond to a message requesting comment.
This story was originally featured on Fortune.com
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