[News Today] Deepfaked celebrities trick consumers

[LEAD]
Deepfake videos manipulated to look as if celebrities or news anchors are promoting them, are now being used to push illegal online gambling.

Even KBS News footage has been exploited, raising concerns for viewers.

[REPORT]
This is an advertisement uploaded on Facebook last month.

It features RM, the leader of BTS.

I made KRW 12 bn in just a week. All you need to do is to ditch the fake version and install the official app.

It looks like an ad for a game but it's actually a promotion video for an illegal online gambling app.

These are deepfake videos created by manipulating faces and voices of public figures, using artificial intelligence.

It can even pretend to be a KBS news program.

An online game platform is released.

Korean politicians are featured just like any other news program.

Interviews of AI-generated people are added.

I got 750,000 won in bonus when I signed up.

The Korea Consumer Agency caught fourteen deepfake ads over the past two months.

They're believed to trick users into downloading the app and then extort money.

The problem is that these ads continue to persist even when users report them.

In August, police started investigating an online gambling ad featuring a fake Son Heung-min, but the ad is still up on Facebook.

Lee Hu-jeong / Korea Consumer Agency
Blocking out a certain ad is done by an exclusive team at the Facebook HQ. This job is not processed as quickly as we want.

It's not easy to even ascertain the ad uploader in Korea.

The consumer advocate agency asks the public not to be tempted by the promise of high profits and to refrain from clicking on the download button.

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