Several deepfake videos were found being promoted on Facebook ads, which falsely portrayed ICICI Prudential Mutual Fund Managing Director Nimesh Shah promising stock recommendations for 2024.
BOOM found strong evidence suggesting that these videos were fabricated using a voice cloning software. Furthermore, a statement by ICICI Prudential AMC confirmed that no such stock recommendation promises were made by Shah, as seen in the Facebook videos, and that they were deceptively edited.
In the deepfake video, which has been found being promoted on Meta's ad library on January 20, 2024, Shah is purportedly shown saying, "Stock trading is a business that can make you rich overnight. I recommended six stocks in 2023. These stocks made huge profits today. I will still recommend several of my favourite stocks for free in 2024."
When BOOM started looking into this matter, as many as 9 such ads were found running with the fraudulent video, which contained a broken Facebook link, and a caption that promised "the strongest Indian stocks in 2024!".
BOOM found this video being shared by promoted posts that promised "the strongest Indian stocks in 2024". We searched on Facebook's ad library with relevant keywords and found several others of similar nature were running during our search.
Fact Check
BOOM closely viewed the video being promoted on Facebook ads, and found several indications of manipulation. The video had jump cuts, and the speech was unnatural, with sentences ending and beginning abruptly.
Furthermore, the voice and the lip movement were noticeably out of sync, with the lips continuing to move even when the speech appears to stop. These serve as telltale signs of deepfake manipulation, through an AI voice cloning software.
We also observed the logo of personal finance magazine Outlook Money watermarked on the top left corner of the video. Taking cue from this, we did a keyword search on YouTube, which led us to several videos being published by Outlook Magazine on their interaction with Shah.
We went through these videos, where Shah was found promoting ICICI Prudential AMC, and discussing the Indian economy. In one of the videos, Shah is found giving a financial advice.
None of the videos showed him promoting certain stocks, or promising to provide specific stock recommendations, as seen in the promoted ad on Facebook.
Furthermore, BOOM also downloaded the video of Shah from Facebook ad library, and ran it through an AI voice cloning detector called 'AI Speech Classifier' by popular voice cloning software Eleven Labs, which indicates if their voice cloning software had been used to create synthetic media.
The tool indicated that the video had 98% likelihood of Eleven Labs voice cloning tool being used to create the video that had been promoted on Facebook ads.
ICICI Pru put out a statement adding, "Certain unauthorised and maliciously manipulated videos have been disseminated across various online platforms, providing stock recommendations, using the name of our senior executive and the brand name and logo of our company."
Photography, Editing Page Becomes 'Stock Analyst'
We also looked into the advertiser of the deepfake video - an obscure page titled "Stock Analyst", having a little over 300 likes and followers, respectively.
The page username was found to be 'vivekanilphotography', and the page, created on January 12, 2015, had names like 'VA editz', 'VA editz and clicks', 'Vivek Anil Photography', and 'IShoots Photography', before changing the name to 'Stock Analyst' on December 26, 2023.
This indicates that the page has been repurposed from one that provided photography and editing services to one that purports to provide stock analysis.
BOOM reached out to Meta for a comment, and the article will be updated with the responses if and when we receive one.
We also reached out the the phone number provided in the Bio of the Facebook page, but was informed by the telecom service provided that 'incoming service was not active' on this number.
BOOM had previously reported on scam videos made using voice cloning technology being promoted on Facebook, impersonating industrialists, influencers and celebrities to promote fraudulent investment funds.