Over a Dozen Reports in Days: Deepfake Economist Fuels $M Pump-and-Dump Losses

For cybersecurity professionals, this is a textbook case of the convergence of deepfake technology, social engineering, and financial crime. By perfectly mimicking the face and voice of a trusted market analyst, attackers bypassed traditional email filters—operating directly on social media and encrypted chat—to manipulate stock prices and drain retirement savings. The attack surface now extends to AI-generated personas, requiring a fundamental rethinking of identity verification across public communications.

A disturbing new wave of online investment fraud is targeting older Australians through the mass impersonation of trusted financial personalities. The Australian Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC) has confirmed receiving more than a dozen reports in recent days of pump-and-dump scams using the name and likeness of high-profile economist and markets analyst Tom Piotrowski. Losses are already estimated to run into the millions of dollars. This is not an isolated incident—similar deepfake and impersonation campaigns have recently exploited the identities of financial author Scott Pape and billionaire Andrew Forrest, signaling a sophisticated escalation in the tactics of online fraudsters.

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The Australian Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC) has confirmed receiving more than a dozen reports in recent days of pump-and-dump scams using the name and likeness of high-profile economist and markets analyst Tom Piotrowski.

Pump-and-dump scams are a classic market manipulation scheme where fraudsters artificially inflate the price of a low-value stock (often a penny stock or obscure cryptocurrency) through false or misleading promotional materials, then sell off their own holdings at the peak, causing the price to crash and leaving victims with worthless shares. In this latest iteration, scammers are leveraging social media platforms and encrypted messaging apps to disseminate fake advertisements and investment tips featuring doctored images and videos of trusted experts. The use of deepfake AI technology—only a few months after Scott Pape publicly warned of hundreds of deepfake posts bearing his own image—makes these endorsements appear authentic, dramatically lowering the guard of potential victims.

ASIC commissioner Alan Kirkland stated that the scammers are deliberately targeting Australians nearing retirement, a cohort known to have amassed significant superannuation savings and to be actively seeking income-generating investment opportunities. Many in this age group have only a passing familiarity with the sharemarket, relying on media figures like Piotrowski—a regular fixture on financial television and a recent addition to NAB’s nabtrade platform—for investment education. The emotional toll is severe; Piotrowski himself described the situation as heartbreaking, knowing that hard-working people are being defrauded using his stolen identity.

The modus operandi is a textbook social engineering attack. Impersonated accounts on platforms such as Facebook, Instagram, WhatsApp, or Telegram post glowing endorsements of a little-known stock, often accompanied by fake news articles or manipulated video clips. Once a critical mass of retail investors buys in, the orchestrators dump their pre-accumulated shares, crashing the price. The entire operation can unfold over a matter of hours, leaving authorities little time to intervene. This speed, combined with the use of end-to-end encrypted messaging services and the ephemeral nature of social media content, makes attribution and prosecution extremely challenging.

The scale of the current campaign is alarming. In just the past few days, more than a dozen victims have come forward, with collective losses already in the millions. Given the typical under-reporting of such crimes—often due to embarrassment or uncertainty about recourse—the real figures are likely much higher. Moreover, the fraud represents a direct threat to the financial wellbeing of retirees and to public confidence in digital financial services.

The regulatory response has been swift in rhetoric but limited in operational tools. ASIC has warned of the trend and urged consumers to verify investment advice through official channels. Yet the decentralized, cross-border nature of the threat requires cooperation from tech platforms, law enforcement, and international regulators. Social media companies have begun deploying AI-powered detection tools to identify and remove deepfake content, but scammers continuously adapt, using newly created accounts and moving conversations to private chats where monitoring is minimal.