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A new AI-powered investment scam is sweeping through social media platforms, stealing millions of dollars in the process. It’s named Nomani, and this is how you spot the scam.
How Nomani Uses AI And Social Media to Lure Victims
Nomani—a play on “no money”— is an investment scam that uses AI deepfake videos, social media malvertising, and company-branded posts to lure victims into fake investment schemes that promise quick and huge returns. According to a report byESET, the spike started in May 2024 and grew by 335% from the first to the second half of the year. From May to November 2024, 8,500 domains and tens of thousands of attempts to access Nomani were blocked, with 100 new URLs related to the scam detected daily.
Scammers use deepfake videos of celebrities and influencers to lure victims into investing with “the rich and famous.” Famous personalities are faked to guarantee the legitimacy of the investment scheme. In some instances, highly localized fraudulent ads are used, faking the appearance of heads of state and local political or business leaders.
In the US and Canada, deepfake videos of Elon Musk advertising “unique crypto investment” opportunities were used. In other cases, previous victims of fraud are targeted by groups pretending to be Interpol or Europol.
The group lures victims with promises of refunds or assistance to recover stolen funds using fake social media adverts. These bogus ads are distributed on Facebook and Instagram, with some using Facebook Messenger and Instagram Threads. X (formerly Twitter) and YouTube are also used to post fake customer reviews and deepfake video testimonials to lure victims into using the “investment platforms.” These fraudulent positive reviews rank high on Google searches.
The fake ads are posted by a mix of stolen legitimate profiles, including hacked business or influencer pages, newly created profiles with a few followers and posts, and pages mimicking legitimate companies or news media. Scammers use official logos, colors, and previous social media content lifted from legitimate pages to create clone pages. The ads lead victims to phishing sites where their data is harvested.
Scammers use the contact information from the scam sites to call the victims directly and entice them to invest their money. Some are convinced to take out loans, and others are made to download remote access apps onto their devices. When victims ask for payouts, they must shell out additional funds or give their PII or credit card information. After taking the victims' data and funds, the scammers disappear. Nomani’s scam operations are similar to notoriouspig butchering scams.
Easy Ways to Spot the Nomani AI Investment Scam
First, the low-resolution AI video ads and testimonials relating to this scam. The scammers use low resolution to mask AI video rendering glitches, making them more difficult to see on small smartphone displays. You’ll also notice weird sentence structure in their speeches, unnatural breathing patterns of the person in the video, and poor audio-video sync. You’ll also notice that keywords are repeated throughout the video as well.
Othertelltale signs that you’re looking at a deepfake videoinclude robotic-sounding dialogue, unusual word pronunciation, poor lip synchronization, jerky and unnatural body movements, and lack of eye movement.
Like other investment scams, the Nomani scam promises quick, easy, and big returns. A dedicated call center department talks victims into taking out loans to supposedly increase their investments or downloading remote access apps to withdraw their payout. Requiring more investment to access payout is a telltale sign that it’s a scam. The scam is designed to trap victims into a cycle of chasing money that will never come. The scam call center has a fake investment manager who asks victims to invest more until there’s no more money left.
Remember, promises of easy money are the biggest red flag. As with any other get-rich-quick financial scam, if it seems too good to be true, it probably is.
