Deborah Friesen of Acton, Ontario, was watching craft videos online when an ad appeared. The man on screen looked exactly like Prime Minister Mark Carney. He said he wanted to help Canadians make extra money. She believed him. Within months, $83,000 was gone — savings she’ll likely never recover. Friesen’s story isn’t a one-off. It’s part of a coordinated AI fraud operation bleeding Canadians dry, powered by deepfake videos so convincing that distinguishing them from reality has become nearly impossible.
The Playbook Is Brutal in Its Patience
Scammers use fake Carney videos as bait, then deploy months of social engineering to maximize losses.
The bait works like a slow-burn con — hook fast, then keep the mark comfortable. A deepfake Carney promises $350 turns into $70,000 in two months, “without hard work, without risk,” supposedly backed by the Bank of Canada. Friesen invested $13,000 initially. Then a man started calling her every day for months, talking for an hour at a time, speaking “like he was my best friend,” according to CTV News. He never rushed. When she finally invested another $70,000, he vanished over WhatsApp. “I just fell apart. I couldn’t stop crying,” Friesen told CTV News.
The Canadian Anti-Fraud Centre has mapped the playbook. Red flags include:
- Guaranteed high returns with zero risk
- Pressure to invest via cryptocurrency exchanges
- Unsolicited “investment advisors” reaching out online
- Fabricated news articles backing the platform
- Requests to install remote-access software
The Numbers Behind the Wreckage
At $103 million lost nationally in a single year, these deepfake investment scams have crossed from isolated incidents into a full-scale financial crisis.
Canadian Anti-Fraud Centre figures confirm Canadians lost $103 million to crypto investment scams in a single year — and individual losses can be catastrophic. Consider Judy Skene, 86, of Sault Ste. Marie: she mortgaged her condo and liquidated retirement funds after a deepfake Carney video told her the investment was government-backed, losing approximately $900,000, according to reporting by CTV News and Yahoo Finance. The platforms — Canyx, TW Pro, PlusTW — are names that mean nothing until they’ve taken everything.
CBC confirmed entirely fabricated “news segments” featuring Carney and host Rosemary Barton — segments that never aired — directing viewers to firms already flagged by the Manitoba Securities Commission. The government’s office for AI and Digital Innovation told CTV News that criminals are using deepfakes, voice cloning, and fabricated articles to “exploit Canadians’ trust” — tactics that echo how a surveillance app was built to covertly target Canadians online.
Cybersecurity expert Claudiu Popa of KnowledgeFlow Cybersafety Foundation put it plainly: “Do not ever invest in anything or in any situation that arises out of social media.”
Anyone with older relatives active on Facebook or YouTube should know this threat is live right now. Spotting a public figure promoting crypto returns warrants a screenshot, a report to the platform, and a call to the account-holding bank — before any funds move. Filing a report with the Canadian Anti-Fraud Centre and contacting local police are the next steps. Most importantly, call someone trusted first.
