The veteran Bay Street Economist is raising the alarm after his name and rebalance were used in fake ads.
David Rosenberg, founder and president of Rosenberg Research, said the investment scam has accumulated thousands of dollars from victims advised in a video recommending stocks on social media platforms.
“They put me on screen with my voice. It's purely fake and advocating funds that I'm not running. I'm not a fund manager at any event, so now I have me on these sites, so I advocate speculative stock picks in the video.
He said he heard from people not even his clients who lost money to scams.
“I think we estimated at least $5 million was sucked up from what they're doing to me,” he said.
Rosenberg discussed the spread of fake AI-generated ads that underscore the public's perception and the need for regulatory measures to combat growing issues.
“It's the dangers and pitfalls of AI technology. This ability to pos completely and fraudulently as someone else for the past four or five months. We're in a situation where we're actually out of control and we have these bots in cyberspace. He said.
“They're putting me in pictures, but now they're putting me in videos. They're becoming more and more perfect for my company logo, some nonexistent admin assistants ready to steal your money.”
He said he contacted Meta, the owner of Facebook and Instagram, to defeat the ads, but refused after repeated requests.
“Meta hasn't removed these ads, obviously because it's earning revenue from it. That's despite our constant complaints and constant reports,” Rosenberg said. “Through the weekend, people were emailing me and asking if this is true, am I really defending stocks? Should I spend money on these investments you recommend? Of course, I'm (them).
Rosenberg said he reported the fraud to authorities but did not provide details on whether an investigation is being conducted.
“Technology is amazing, it produces good and it produces evil,” Rosenberg said. “This is the evil part.”
