Case uae-economy-minister-deepfake-videosDeepfake fraudOct 16, 2025United Arab Emirates

UAE Economy Minister says his face was deepfaked in social media investment scam videos

At GITEX 2025, UAE Minister of Economy Abdulla bin Touq Al Marri said fraudsters had manipulated his image in social media videos promoting fraudulent share investment schemes and called for deepfake detection tools.

MediumAttack using AIStatus: OngoingVerified case file

Open in the interactive map Cite this case

Reported: Oct 16, 2025
Location: United Arab Emirates
Target: UAE social media users
Severity: Medium
Triggered by: Unknown
Actor type: Criminal
Reported loss: None reported
CVE: None

What happened

Impact: No losses disclosed; Sumsub data cited 600 percent growth in deepfakes in Saudi Arabia and 200 percent in Kuwait.

Who triggered it

Actor: Unknown

Attribution: Unknown.

Motive: Lure investors with a government minister's apparent endorsement.

How it happened

Attack vector: Manipulated videos of the minister on social media promoting share investment schemes.

Root cause: Abundant public footage of officials and limited platform verification of financial ads.

Timeline

Oct 14, 2025Minister discusses being targeted by deepfake investment videos at GITEX
Oct 16, 2025Regional media report the warning and Sumsub MENA deepfake growth figures

Response

Minister publicly stated he would never endorse share investments on camera.

Current status: Ongoing

Sources (open in a new tab)

AGBI agbi.com
MENA Startup Digest menastartupdigest.com

Cite this case

UAE Economy Minister says his face was deepfaked in social media investment scam videos. AI Threat Watch, case uae-economy-minister-deepfake-videos, Oct 16, 2025. https://aithreat.io/cases/uae-economy-minister-deepfake-videos/

Permanent link: https://aithreat.io/cases/uae-economy-minister-deepfake-videos/