Scams are getting more complex as artificial intelligence gets more advanced. That in mind, Meta launched a new Fraud Intelligence Reciprocal Exchange (FIRE) tool in Australia in an effort to cut down on the massive financial losses suffered by victims in the country.
Australia saw a rise in celebrity deepfakes pushing investment scams amid the ongoing crypto boom. Such scams used fake images of Aussie celebs like billionaire Gina Rinehart or TV personality Larry Emdur, the Guardian noted. In some cases, as with a deepfake photo of animal activist Robert Irwin in handcuffs, the scams had a conspiratorial tone, as if law enforcement was trying to hide secret financial information from the public, and the celebrities wanted to bring it to light.
The FIRE tool is, effectively, a joint effort between Meta and banks to collect information on online scams. It has led to the blocking of 8,000 pages and 9,000 celebrity scams on Facebook in its first six months, the Guardian reported. Citing the Australian government service Scamwatch, Australians had reported $43.3 million — around $30 million USD — in losses from social media scams just from January through August, the Guardian says.
Microsoft Bing amps up its ability to stop explicit deepfake images from appearing in Search results
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