{"id":423404,"date":"2026-04-29T12:34:08","date_gmt":"2026-04-29T12:34:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/423404\/"},"modified":"2026-04-29T12:34:08","modified_gmt":"2026-04-29T12:34:08","slug":"harris-a-victim-of-deepfake-video-scam-the-irish-times","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/423404\/","title":{"rendered":"Harris a victim of deepfake video scam \u2013 The Irish Times"},"content":{"rendered":"

T\u00e1naiste and Minister for Finance Simon Harris<\/a> said \u201cdeep-faked\u201d videos portraying him endorsing fraudulent investment products were so convincing he had to watch them twice to ensure they were not real.<\/p>\n

Harris told an assembly of financial experts at the AML Intelligence European Anti-Financial Crime Summit at the RDS in Dublin that the \u201cevolution of financial crime now fundamentally threatens the integrity of the financial system\u201d.<\/p>\n

One of those evolutions, Harris said, was the \u201cemergence of deepfake technology being used to impersonate trusted individuals and promote fraudulent financial products online\u201d.<\/p>\n

The T\u00e1naiste said he was one of the victims of the phenomenon.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn recent months, a deepfake video circulated online falsely portraying me endorsing investment products that had no basis in reality,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

The footage, though \u201centirely fabricated\u201d, was so convincing that Harris said, with a laugh: \u201cI had to watch it twice to check it wasn\u2019t me.\u201d<\/p>\n

The video was posted following Harris\u2019s announcement of plans for State-run savings and investment scheme for households aimed at making investing more accessible. <\/p>\n

With considerable attention on the announcement, banking sector representatives contacted the Department of Finance to alert Harris to the videos.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf those of us who are aware and are somewhat knowledgeable in this area have to look a second time, it shows the level and quality of these deepfakes,\u201d Harris said.<\/p>\n

He noted the videos generated by artificial intelligence (AI)<\/a> were becoming more difficult for people to identify and easier for people to generate.<\/p>\n

Harris stressed the need for public awareness on the matter, but he put the onus on technology companies.<\/p>\n

Addressing the \u201ctech giants\u201d in Ireland, Harris said: \u201cYou can\u2019t remove yourself from this conversation.<\/p>\n

\u201cTech companies and social media are enablers if they don\u2019t take strict action in relation to the massive crime [against] and exploitation of our citizens. It is a serious issue.\u201d<\/p>\n

He said that at a European level, the focus on financial crime could not merely focus on enforcement of banks, but there needed to be examination and scrutinisation of the role of big technology companies in the spread of deepfakes on social media.<\/p>\n

This false information, Harris suggested, was distorting both \u201cour democracy and our financial wellbeing\u201d. He called for \u201cvery serious conversation\u201d on how to tackle the \u201cevolving and very damaging crime\u201d.<\/p>\n

Financial crime is a growing threat in Ireland, and across the world, with significant evolution in the scale, sophistication and impact due to the emergence of new technologies, the conference heard.<\/p>\n

\"SimonSimon Harris and Elisa de Anda Madrazo, president of the Financial Action Task Force, at the AML Intelligence European Anti-Financial Crime Summit at the RDS in Dublin. Photograph: AML <\/p>\n

Among the other speakers, Patricia Dunne, a senior Central Bank of Ireland official, suggested the technology was \u201cenabling the use of tools that were never meant to support financial crime\u201d.<\/p>\n

Dunne said criminals were gaining access to tools that allow them \u201cfaster and more efficient ways to deceive and break through regulatory controls and systems, causing significant harm to the [financial] system and to consumers\u201d.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"T\u00e1naiste and Minister for Finance Simon Harris said \u201cdeep-faked\u201d videos portraying him endorsing fraudulent investment products were so…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":423405,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[20],"tags":[220,218,219,61,60,70,80],"class_list":["post-423404","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-artificial-intelligence","tag-ai","tag-artificial-intelligence","tag-artificialintelligence","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-simon-harris","tag-technology"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/423404","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=423404"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/423404\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/423405"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=423404"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=423404"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=423404"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}