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Read Full BioSouth Korean government agencies have pledged to respond to a sharp rise in the number of celebrity deepfake gambling ads appearing on social media platforms, featuring AI-generated videos of stars such as IU and Son Heung-min.
Realistic-looking videos appear to show IU, an A-list South Korean singer and actress, holding a smartphone that is running a casino app.
Similar videos featuring the soccer star Son Heung-min appear to show the star speaking in Korean, urging viewers to download a gambling app.
Other videos featuring deepfakes of the actor Lee Jung-jae and the pop star RM of BTS have also appeared on several video-sharing platforms.
The videos feature logos and marketing material ripped from Kangwon Land, the operator of the High1 casino. Others use material from the Ministry of Economy and Finance.
Deepfake Gambling Ads Commonplace on Facebook
Online gambling is illegal in South Korea. But experts claim that the ads seek to “mislead people into thinking it is legal” by using government and licensed casino logos and themes.
The South Korean media outlet Insight reported that the Korea Consumer Agency, a government consumer rights watchdog, says at least 38 of these ads were circulating on Facebook and other platforms.
The ads feature “sophisticatedly manipulated videos.” Several of the deepfake videos featured footage of celebrities appearing to “personally recommend” using a gambling app.
Eight other videos were also discovered, which used composite news footage from terrestrial broadcasters like MBC and KBS “to make it appear as if they were official broadcasts about gambling sites.”
“The videos have been synthesized with remarkable precision,” the media outlet wrote. “Even the voices and mouth movements are difficult to distinguish from bona fide broadcasts.”
Ads Rip Data & Use Deepfake Technology
Two dozen ads made illegal use of the official logos of government ministries and major business operators. They made use of phrases like “government-certified” and “legally operated.”
Around a dozen more make unauthorized use of characters from well-known companies, including the Donghaeng Lottery, the chat app operator Kakao, and major convenience store brands.
The ads suggested that the casinos were somehow affiliated with these companies. Investigators found that they “actively lured victims by cleverly exploiting algorithms to repeatedly display similar ads after a single viewing.”
The identities of the advertisers were largely unknown, the media outlet reported.
The Korea Consumer Agency said that it had forwarded the results of its investigation to Meta. It also asked the Facebook operator to “take measures to block the repeated posting of identical or similar advertisements.”
The agency said it plans to step up its monitoring of deepfake casino ads “across major online platforms.”
“Online gambling is illegal in and of itself,” an agency spokesperson said. “With recent developments in AI technology, it is becoming very easy to create deepfake videos impersonating celebrities, news agencies, and public institutions. The public must take special care.”
Law enforcers added that the public can report suspected cases of illegal online gambling to the Illegal Gambling Industry Monitoring and Reporting Center.
In August, Kangwon Land vowed to take action against the creators of a deepfake video. The video showed Son seemingly endorsing a bogus Kangwon Land gambling app. The casino operator said the creators of the video were based overseas.
