Social media deepfakes promote sham Quantum AI investment scheme

Which? has found five new deepfake scam videos of celebrities peddling a phoney investment firm called Quantum AI.

Which? has warned about the Quantum AI investment scam multiple times. It works by luring you in with promises of making quick-and-easy cash, only to leave you out of pocket when you can’t withdraw returns or get your money back.

At the time of writing, the adverts Which? discovered were posted on Meta platforms Facebook and Instagram and had been seen by a total of 11,840 accounts.

A survey carried out by Barclays found that only around a third of people believe they could spot an AI scam, and more than eight in 10 believe tech companies should do more to prevent scams from taking place on their platforms. 

Read on to discover the latest Quantum AI scam videos and what we think Meta should be doing to stop these scams.

Deepfake investment scams

A deepfake video, which shows the social media influencer Andrew Tate on a podcast talking to the host about the trading platform Quantum AI, is used to promote the scheme.

In it, he says: ‘The first time I became a millionaire is with an AI tool that trades automatically.’ However, Which? traced this video footage back to several identical clips, revealing that genuine clips of Andrew Tate were manipulated to create the scam video.

Other videos posted by the same account appeared to be entirely AI-generated and told the story of someone who made ‘$80,000 in just one week'.

Which? found that the Facebook page posting these ads contained red flags that suggested it was a scam. One red flag we saw was an address on its page that actually belongs to a different company based in London.

The page also featured several seemingly dodgy reviews - of the 69 positive reviews, all bar one featured no words, and 64 of them were posted on the same day. Many of the reviewers had left dozens of positive reviews of other pages.

Martin Lewis, the Money Saving Expert, has also warned about the Quantum AI investment scams this week. This came after he was alerted to a disturbing deepfake video of his wife, Lara Lewington, being attacked by an 'immigrant' after apparently being refused entry to the fake Martin Lewis' Quantum AI scheme. 

Posting on his Instagram channel, Martin Lewis said: 'Social media firms have no problem taking money to publish this offensive, fake, organised criminals' attempts to rip people off!'

Which? shared the ads it found with Meta and it told us that it would investigate the adverts brought to its attention, noting that a few of the posts had already been removed automatically by its systems.

It also told us that videos which have been manipulated in a way that would likely mislead an average person can be removed under its manipulated media policy. When it becomes aware of content like this, it will assess whether the content meets its criteria for removal.

How this scam works

The website that the adverts linked to featured another seemingly AI-generated video boasting about the features of the trading platform.

After being made to watch the video, you’re then invited to see if there are any ‘available spots’ left to sign up to the platform, before being invited to leave your name, email address and phone number.

In a previous investigation, we shared our details with the scammer to see what happened. We were then bombarded with sales calls, some of which sounded as if they were from call centres, with other calls audible in the background. The caller relentlessly tried to get us to sign up to the platform for £200-£250.

Which? has reported this website to the National Cyber Security Centre. 

What will Meta do about these scams?

Under the Online Safety Act, Meta will be required to prevent and remove fraudulent advertising. But due to continued delays with the enforcement of these rules by the regulator Ofcom, social media platforms will not be held accountable for scam ads until at least 2027. Ofcom has been given the power to issue fines of 10% of global turnover or £18m, whichever is greater.

This week, the government unveiled its new Fraud Strategy, which failed to address the responsibility of big tech. Which? is concerned that not enough is being done to hold big tech to account. The most effective way to disrupt fraudsters is to make tech giants responsible for the scams appearing on their platforms in the first place. 

Which? wants the Online Safety Act's measures on fraudulent advertising to be implemented so that Ofcom can take action against tech firms that fail to stop scams on their platforms. 

Which? contacted Meta about these scam ads, but it hadn't responded by the time we published this story.

Join our campaign to Stamp out scams

Spotting deepfake scams on social media

Deepfake scam ads typically appear on social media platforms. Here’s how to spot them:

• The offer or deal is too good to be true.
• The lip-syncing in the video is slightly off.
• People in the video look strange, such as the hair, lighting and skin tone of the person looking off or details in the video disappearing as it plays.
• Listen out for strange background noises or robotic voices.
• Look for unnatural expressions –  it's hard to mimic natural blinking, AI often lacks facial emotion and AI body movements can seem off.
• If the video isn't posted from an official account or if it's an account you've never heard of and you haven't seen the video anywhere else, be wary.
• If you do click through to the website, you should type the website address into Who.is, as this will tell you when the website was created. Newly created websites are a red flag. The website linked to these Quantum AI ads was created on 19 November 2025.
• Before investing, you should always consult the Financial Conduct Authority's (FCA) Register to see if the firm is authorised or on the FCA's warning list. 

To report ads on Facebook and Instagram, select the three dots in the top-right corner and click 'Report'.

Scam websites can be reported to the National Cyber Security Centre (NCSC) on its website.

If you've lost money or spot an unauthorised transaction on your account, you should contact your bank immediately using the number found on the back of your card. Scams should be reported to Report Fraud, or by calling the police on 101 if you live in Scotland.