NEW YORK–It appears it will only be a matter of time before one or more executives at a credit union are used in a deepfake scam that defrauds members, businesses or both.

In 2024, one famous case involved an AI-generated hyper-realistic impersonation of a firm’s CEO ordering money transfers to be made by a subordinate that cost the company millions.

Now, in a new report, Fortune is reporting how a video ad campaign on Instagram used a convincing deepfake of Goldman Sachs executives Abby Joseph Cohen and David Kostin, the goal of which was to tempt amateurs who want to get rich quickly into a stock-buying WhatsApp group. 

A ‘Legend,’ But Not in This Case

“Abby Joseph Cohen is a legend in the world of investing,” Fortune reported. “She was chief investment strategist at Goldman Sachs until 2008, when she moved to the bank’s Global Markets Institute, before retiring from Goldman in 2021. Currently, she is a professor at Columbia Business School.”

That’s what it was a surprise to many retail investors, Fortune observed, to see Joseph-Cohen in a video on an Instagram feed with a compelling offer: “We have found three severely undervalued technology stocks. Join my group now to get it immediately. Anyone who owns these three stocks in the next five years can retire comfortably.” 

The video was an AI-generated fake.

Need for Caution

“There should always be caution exercised around any unverified communication purporting to come from a Goldman Sachs employee,” the bank said in a statement.

Meta, owner of Instagram, took down the video.

According to Fortune, the deepfake was so convincing even people who have met Joseph Cohen in person would likely would think it was real, at least at first glance.