Deepfake scammers use top South African doctor’s likeness

[Nat Quinn]

The likeness of Professor Kgomotso Mathabe — head of urology at the University of Pretoria and the Steve Biko Academic Hospital — has been used in deepfakes by scammers to sell “male potency” products that did not exist to unsuspecting South Africans.

Speaking with the Sunday Times, Mathabe said she first learned about these deepfakes on 2 January 2024.

“A colleague sent me a link to the advert on Facebook. I did not take it very seriously as I’m not active on social media,” said Mathabe.

“But that was before I got an inexplicable flurry of messages on LinkedIn from people wanting refunds, and phone calls from people inquiring about medication and wanting to consult with me.”

“Some of them had entered bank details and had debits off their account of R500 or more,” she said.

Dr Kgomotso Mathabe

Reporting the attack

She reported the attack to her seniors on 12 January — and to the police on 17 January — but the police did not properly understand what she was reporting.

“The police did not want to open a case without an actual crime,” said Mathabe’s colleague, Dr Santosh Bugwandin.

“But people may not want to go to the police and speak about a sexual health product.”

Mathabe said the deepfake campaign has significantly hampered her career.

“There were videos of me talking about the benefits of this medication versus the benefits of FDA-approved Viagra and Cialis,” said Mathabe.

“My colleagues would ask why I was trashing FDA-approved medication.”

Deepfakes run wild

Mathabe’s experience is far from the first in South Africa.

Scam videos featuring deepfakes of well-known South African news anchors speaking to prominent businesspeople have started circulating on channels like Facebook and YouTube.

In one example, SABC News anchor Francis Herd is depicted in a deepfake, talking about how Elon Musk is allegedly running a big investment project that “has made hundreds of people very rich.”

A graphic also claims that “Everyone who invests R4700 can earn R300,000 per month.”

This is clearly a scam, but had amassed 100,000 views from its date of publishing, 3 November 2023, until 7 November 2023.

The scam advertisement featuring deepfakes of Elon Musk and SABC News anchor Francis Herd.

 South African law not ready for deepfakes

Legal expert Layckan Van Gensen recently noted that South Africa’s government hasn’t yet taken any meaningful legislative steps to combat deepfakes.

She said this is particularly concerning given the upcoming national elections.

“There is currently no recognition of image rights in South Africa’s case law or legislation,” said Van Gensen.

Image rights are distinct from copyright in law, Van Gensen added, and are therefore not covered effectively by copyright law.

“The scope of protection provided by copyright alone would not be enough to tackle the problem of deepfakes in a court setting,” said Van Gensen.

“I argue for legal intervention which recognises individual image rights. By recognising an image right the image will be protected against unauthorised use.”

 

SOURCE:Deepfake scammers use top South African doctor’s likeness (mybroadband.co.za)

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