Ibukun Awosika and Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala have both had to publicly debunk fake AI videos of themselves promoting investment platforms. Here's how the scam works and how to verify before you invest.
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| Deepfake image | PremiumTimes |
In January 2026, Nigerian business executive Ibukun Awosika had to publicly clarify that she was not, in fact, endorsing an investment platform circulating in an AI-generated video using her likeness. A month later, World Trade Organization Director-General Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala issued a similar warning, after a fabricated video showed her promoting a non-existent investment opportunity to Nigerians.
Neither woman made those videos. Neither benefited from them. Both had to spend real time and credibility publicly denying something they never said, while, somewhere, Nigerians were watching those exact clips and deciding whether to send money.
This is the fastest-growing scam category targeting Nigerians in 2026, and it works precisely because it doesn't look like the scams people have learned to recognize.
How the Scam Actually Works
The pattern is consistent, whether the target is a Nigerian public figure or a global one:
- A convincing video surfaces a well-known businessperson, government official, or public figure appears to be speaking directly to camera, "endorsing" a trading or investment platform with promises of guaranteed, extraordinary returns.
- The video spreads through paid social media ads, not just organic posts ads reach a far wider audience, far faster, and scam ads featuring cloned public figures have routinely slipped past platforms' automated content review.
- A click leads off-platform, typically into WhatsApp, where the conversation continues privately.
- Victims are added to fake "investment group chats" filled with fabricated testimonials and coached "experts" designed specifically to create social pressure and a false sense of legitimate community before any money changes hands.
- Early "returns" appear real. Some victims are shown fake account dashboards displaying growing balances, encouraging them to deposit more until they try to withdraw, at which point access disappears along with the money.
A researcher at Fountain University's Centre for Research, Innovation and Technology described the shift plainly: scammers have found a tool that makes their existing playbook faster, cheaper, and far more convincing than before.
The fraud itself isn't new fake investment schemes have targeted Nigerians for years. What's changed is that the fabricated "proof" backing the pitch is now a video that looks and sounds like a real person saying real words.
Why This Is Especially Dangerous Right Now
Video and voice cloning no longer require specialist skills or expensive equipment. A single interview clip the kind any well-known Nigerian public figure has dozens of, sitting publicly on YouTube or in news archives is enough raw material to generate a convincing fake.
The scam economics favor volume: a single fraud operation can generate large numbers of variants of the same deceptive video, which is part of why platform content-moderation systems struggle to keep pace.
Nigeria's exposure is compounded by two factors specific to this market: a large, financially underserved population actively looking for investment opportunities, and extremely high trust in well-known public figures exactly the trust this fraud is engineered to exploit.
How to Verify Before You Invest
1. Check SEC registration: every time, no exceptions. All investment platforms operating in Nigeria are legally required to register with the Securities and Exchange Commission. Before depositing anything, check the platform against SEC Nigeria's public list of registered operators. If it isn't there, that alone should end the conversation.
2. Check FCCPC registration for lending platforms: If the pitch involves borrowing to invest, or is loan-adjacent, legitimate lenders must appear on the Federal Competition and Consumer Protection Commission's list of approved or conditionally approved platforms.
3. Look for the visual tells: Deepfake video still struggles with certain details: unnaturally smooth or inconsistently textured skin (especially forehead and cheeks), skin tone or age that doesn't quite match the person's hair and eyes, and small continuity errors across a clip a tie or background detail that shifts without explanation. None of these are definitive alone, but multiple small inconsistencies together are a strong signal.
4. Go directly to the person's own verified channel: If a public figure appears to be endorsing something, check their own verified social media account directly both Awosika and Okonjo-Iweala's actual denials were published this way. A real endorsement from a real public figure will exist somewhere the person actually controls; a fake one won't.
5. Treat "guaranteed returns" as the clearest red flag of all: No legitimate investment can guarantee extraordinary, risk-free returns. This single claim, regardless of how convincing the messenger looks, is the fastest way to identify a scam.
6. Never move the conversation to a private, unverifiable channel on someone else's instruction: Being redirected from a public ad into a private WhatsApp group is, by itself, a meaningful warning sign legitimate financial institutions don't typically operate this way.
What to Do If You've Already Sent Money
- Stop sending further funds immediately "recovery fees" or requests for more money to "unlock" a withdrawal are part of the same scam, not a way out of it.
- Report to the Nigeria Police Force's National Cybercrime Centre through the NPF-NCCC e-reporting portal.
- Report the platform to SEC Nigeria directly, so it can be added to public investor-alert lists.
- Report the ad or video to the platform it appeared on (Meta, TikTok, etc.) this won't recover your money, but it helps get the specific content taken down before it reaches others.
Frequently Asked Questions
How do I know if an investment video is a deepfake? Look for unnatural skin texture, mismatched aging between skin and hair/eyes, and small continuity errors across the clip. More reliably, verify independently: check the person's own verified account and confirm the platform's SEC registration before trusting anything the video claims.
Has this happened to real Nigerian public figures? Yes. Ibukun Awosika and Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala have both had to publicly deny AI-generated videos using their likeness to promote investment platforms in 2026 alone.
How do I check if an investment platform is legitimate in Nigeria? Confirm it appears on the Securities and Exchange Commission's public list of registered investment platforms. For lending platforms, check the FCCPC's approved list instead.
Why do scammers use celebrities and public figures specifically? Familiar, trusted faces lower people's guard and make a fraudulent pitch feel pre-vetted the endorsement itself does the persuading, which is exactly why it's fabricated.
What should I do if I already sent money to a fake investment platform? Stop sending any further funds immediately, report the platform to SEC Nigeria and the NPF-NCCC cybercrime portal, and do not pay any "release fee" requested to unlock a withdrawal that request is itself part of the scam.
See Also:
Cybercrime in Nigeria: The Growing Digital Threat Within Our Borders
The Hidden Threat: Understanding Click-Based Attacks in Modern Web Security
SIM-Swap Fraud in Nigeria 2026: How It Works and How to Protect Your Bank Account
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