Videos circulating on Facebook have used AI-generated likenesses of German news presenters to promote investment platforms. The clips promise large profits, while borrowing the faces and voices of people viewers may already trust.
ZDF presenter Christian Sievers and Tagesschau presenter André Schünke were both targeted. Their cases show how a convincing voice or familiar face can lend credibility to an offer, even when the video itself contains signs of manipulation.
Familiar presenters, unfamiliar investment claims
A Facebook promotional video featured a fake version of Sievers promising big returns from new AI-supported investment platforms. The pitch claimed that German citizens could earn “large sums of money” with “minimal effort.” The wording and rough presentation might raise doubts, but the digital copy was designed to look and sound like the presenter.
Sievers described the impersonation on Twitter: “The guy looks like me, sounds like me (almost). But it's not really me… at all”. He also warned: “Beware, bad scam with AI on social media.” The article reports that he had not received a response to his complaint on Facebook, where the video appeared to have been shared.
In mid-August, Tagesschau presenter André Schünke was targeted by an essentially identical deepfake investment scam. Speaking to Bild, he said: “It can be frightening what is possible with artificial intelligence these days. And I'm afraid this is just the beginning. It's hard to tell the difference between original and fake,”
Why small clues can be easy to miss
In the fake Sievers video, a closer inspection reveals lip movements that do not match the words and appear animated. Those details can be difficult to see on a small smartphone screen, especially when a clip is shown at Facebook's low resolution.
The scam's intended audience also matters. The article says these videos are targeted at people who may be less familiar with AI-based forgery. A recognizable face and a convincing voice can make a financial pitch feel more credible, while subtle visual inconsistencies disappear in the flow of social media.
That combination puts viewers in a difficult position: the warning signs may be present, but noticing them requires attention and a clear enough view of the video. A familiar presenter alone cannot establish that an investment offer is genuine.
Public footage can help create convincing fakes
News anchors are particularly suitable targets for deepfake systems because they are widely known and often trusted. Their work also leaves substantial amounts of high-quality audio and video available online.
That material can help a system imitate both a person's appearance and voice. In Sievers' case, the article notes that hours of audio from his work as an anchor are available on the web, making it easier to train a voice model that sounds like him.
The tools lower the effort needed to produce an imitation. The article gives Elevenlabs as an example, saying that five minutes of audio can be enough to create a cloned voice with recognizable expression and human-like intonation.
AI lowers the barrier for impersonation
Fraudulent investment pitches could exist without AI. The change described here is that AI tools make it easier to produce a familiar-sounding voice and a convincing likeness, giving more people the means to create an impersonation.
These cases also show why a polished voice or a recognizable presenter should not be treated as proof that a financial claim is authentic. The fake clips pair trusted public figures with promises of easy gains, and the resulting impression can be stronger than the small clues that reveal the video is manipulated.
For viewers, the central challenge is to assess the claim as well as the person shown. The videos use a presenter's identity to promote an investment platform; that identity does not verify the platform or its promises.