“This is an unbelievable shock.” I was on the phone to Carla, a marketing consultant in Merthyr Tydfil, Wales. She’d been listed as the owner of Heavenly Sphere, the app Matt and I were inadvertently advertising.
“I have no idea what this app is.”
On the surface, many of the apps were hosted by legitimate-sounding companies from the UK and the US. Warmenhoven said their credentials were likely used to help the scammers look legitimate to Apple – but the business owners had no idea their names had been used.
Jennifer Viccars, co-founder of MyUnit
Jennifer Viccars, co-founder of MyUnit
“This is horrible,” said another small business owner, this time in London. Jennifer Viccars runs MyUnit, a platform that helps residents pay fair utility bills. Her company was now listed as the owner of an app called Ankh’s Shadows. On the App Store, users were promised “an Egyptian-themed party” that “turns into a thrilling roguelike adventure like no other”. Once downloaded, it took users to an online casino.
“This is the antithesis of the brand values of the space we occupy. We’re about making sure that the people who have the least aren’t exploited.”
“We felt confused and scared,” said Angy Rivera, co-executive director of an American youth leadership charity. Her organisation was listed as the owner of a casino app called Plimko Rise, which another Sky journalist was deepfaked into advertising.
“It could put our reputation into question,” said Rivera.
Although both Apple and the Gambling Commission have now taken action to tackle these apps, the UK’s National Crime Agency is worried. It said our investigation demonstrated AI’s potential “to increase the speed, scale and sophistication of scams, allowing offenders to target more victims across international and language barriers”.
So what can be done?
“It’s important that people are vigilant. If an app is routing you to a site that is different to what was advertised, that’s almost certainly criminal.”
“It’s time to delete [the app] because you don’t know who you’re dealing with.”
The idea that criminals had co-opted my image and taken advantage of Sky News’ trusted reputation to promote illegal gambling still unnerves me. Deepfakes are easier than ever to create and I am clearly in someone’s AI system – there could be infinite versions of me out there advertising anything and I simply wouldn’t know.
But at least in this deepfake reality, I’ve got a nice car.
