Nigel Farage and Bank of England governor Andrew Bailey have condemned social media ads featuring deepfake images of them fighting.
In the AI-generated pictures, the Reform leader is seen grabbing and kicking Bailey on the set of the BBC’s Question Time programme – sometimes with bruising on his own face.
Farage is even seen pulling a gun on the banker – who has never actually appeared on the show – in one example.
Users on X have reported seeing the advert ‘a million’ times, with images showing several different versions of the bogus confrontation.
While they appear to be videos with a large ‘play’ button, it’s thought none of the posts actually contain clips and that the symbol has been added in an attempt to get social media users to click on the images.
One person wrote: ‘Getting so many of these from different angles I’m starting to believe Farage actually did have a bust up with Andrew Bailey on the set of question time.’
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The posts link to articles promoting investment schemes which Bailey described as ‘scams’.
He said: ‘Unfortunately, fake adverts impersonating the Bank of England and other central banks are on the rise.
‘These scams are designed to criminally exploit the public, especially the vulnerable, when they are online.
‘I would urge everyone to stay vigilant and report these scams. That way authorities can better root out digital deception like this and permanently remove the fraudsters responsible for what is a truly online scourge.’
Bailey added that the Bank had reported the adverts to both X and Reform UK.
Farage said in a post on X: ‘You may have seen some bizarre AI videos on this platform today.
‘Whilst Andrew Bailey and I have our disagreements, I would never take it that far!’
Cybersecurity experts Bitdefender told The Telegraph that the images were a product of a ‘global, co-ordinated investment scam ecosystem’.
A spokesman said the network appeared to be linked with Russian-language scammers pursuing ‘financially motivated criminal activity’.
Farage and Bailey are far from the only public figures being used by scammers to exploit people online.
Last week, Money Saving Expert Martin Lewis said he had been left in tears after a viewer contacted him to say she had given money to a company she believed he had endorsed.
He wrote on X: ‘She then goes on to explain how she really wanted her flat and she gave more and more money. And she has nothing left to help with her disability.’
Speaking to Good Morning Britain today, Tech Secretary Liz Kendall said she would ‘definitely act on this’.
She said: ‘I am really worried about these issues where people’s faces are being used, AI is using fake images of people, these so-called digital replicas.
‘This is another issue we’ve already said we are looking at, because people have got to be able to trust what they see.’
X has been contacted for comment.
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