PM comments on fake video using his face and voice to 'offer' investment to nation

The manipulated video is presented as the Prime Minister's address to the nation and aims to improperly collect users' personal details as a prerequisite for participating in an investment scheme. To enhance the sense of authenticity, the unknown authors present it as part of a news feed.

"I guarantee your money with my reputation. Every investor will make a profit," the PM allegedly says in the fake video.

The Prime Minister assured that it was a cybercrime and the alert was forwarded to the Ministry of Interior.

"I have never on any occasion called on people to provide their personal details and I never will. It is very important that people know that they should not do that , whoever appears on their TV."

The investigation by the Chief Directorate for Combating Organised Crime has found that the video was posted on Facebook through a compromised page of a Polish web design company. Multiple details show that the video is a fake.

There is a discrepancy in the mouth opening, in the word order, there are words that are mispronounced in this video. We urge citizens to be careful, to ignore such materials," said Vladimir Dimitrov, head of the Cybercrime Department at the Chief Directorate for Combating Organised Crime.

"We will try to get to the source. Given the content of the video, we assume that it is an organised crime group dealing with investment fraud."

It is likely that the fraudsters' aim was to collect as many personal details of users as possible so that they could then be contacted by call centres dealing with financial investments.

Such activity also assumes cybercriminals have a good knowledge of how to minimise them on the internet. In most of our investigations we have been able to reach perpetrators in other continents," explained Vladimir Dimitrov.

Analysts say such video should also be seen in the context of hybrid warfare in Europe, where the role of artificial intelligence will become increasingly important.

"Although it seems to be the work of rogues, we should seriously consider the option in which it is intentionally made to look this way, but in fact - a political attack coming from another place, for example, from a foreign country," said Goran Georgiev, analyst at the Centre for the Study of Democracy.

According to experts, the biggest danger of flooding the internet with fake videos is the creation of a zero-trust community where people will not be able to distinguish truth from falsehood even when it comes to decisions that directly affect their lives. According to IT experts, however, the future does not look so pessimistic, and the relationship between artificial intelligence and humans will become stronger and stronger, especially in social networks.

"2024 will be the year we form the first formal friendships and communications and relationships with artificial intelligence. We can have a famous person as our personal assistant and friend and say Robert De Niro can be your personal assistant if you say you want to study at the National Academy of Theatre and Film Arts and help you become the best actor in Bulgaria," said Alexander Ivanov, an expert in information technology and a lecturer at SoftUni.

The IT industry assures that tools are being developed daily to counter misinformation and will ensure the authenticity of every video in the digital world.

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