SABC anchor Leanne Manas is “angry” and “heartbroken” over the theft of her identity, used to create deepfake video adverts that have seen investors lose their life savings in online trading platforms such as Banxso.
Manas told the Mail & Guardian this week how her life has been disrupted since the first series appeared as weight-loss adverts on TikTok and Facebook in about July last year.
The adverts then shifted to promising investors excellent returns for an investment of R4 800 on an online trading platform.
Manas has had to be escorted to her car at work because of being approached by scam victims, and has dealt with a barrage of emails and calls from people saying they had lost money on platforms such as Banxso.
But Banxso’s general manager, Manuel de Andrade, has repeatedly denied that the company has any association with the deepfake adverts featuring prominent people, previously telling the M&G the company was investigating them.
He also previously said the company was working on resolving investors’ complaints.
Similar deepfake adverts for online trading leading investors to Banxso’s platforms have featured prominent business people such as Elon Musk, Johann Rupert, Nicky Oppenheimer and, more recently, Patrice Motsepe, according to people who lost money due to scams.
The M&G has clicked on several of the video links and received phone calls from consultants as well as welcoming emails from Banxso.
In response to questions this week, Banxso’s attorney Darren Hanekom again told the M&G that the company denied any involvement with the deepfake ads.
“Our client vehemently denies that it benefitted from and/or had any involvement with the scams and/or advertisements.
“Moreover, we reiterate that our client was one of several service providers affected by these scams,” Hanekom said.
“Our client has contacted all of the relevant platforms through which the advertisements were circulated, however, has had limited success with its engagements with the hosts and/or proprietors thereof.”
Manas said the deepfake adverts started with manipulated images of her marketing weight-loss “gummies”. She was alerted to these when people sent her messages on X and Facebook.
“I started getting messages from people about a diet pill asking me, ‘Is this true? Is this you? What is that?’
“And then I was getting emails from people saying, ‘But we’ve ordered the stuff, and no one’s getting it to us, and we’ve ordered it, and we noticed that money is disappearing from our bank account.’
“They had to change their banking details to stop the money from coming off the account,” Manas said.
While she was abroad on holiday with her family in August last year, the adverts evolved from the diet pills to defamatory deepfake articles in which she was portrayed as saying she had “uncovered an SA Reserve bank secret” and that she had been arrested for what she said on air.
“There were rumours I was taken off air because I was on the Expresso show on SABC 3 talking about some investment tool.
“I had ‘found the loop into the South African Reserve Bank’ and ‘I could not complete this interview because they pulled the mic off air before I told them the secret to making millions and ending poverty in the country,’” she said.
“Of course, I disappeared from being on air because I was overseas on holiday, having the time of my life. Little did I know that this investment thing started to gain traction from me being absent.
“It started from me having my mic cut, to me being arrested.
“And social media started getting flooded with images of me being arrested. They are the funniest things you’ve ever seen — my face superimposed on other people being arrested.
“One is of me walking in town carrying a shopping packet with my arms behind my back, being thrown into a police van.
“And then, boom, this R4 700 [later R4 800] thing [investment platform] started and that started going out of control,” she said.
Manas said that she had no idea who was behind the Immediate Matrix and Immediate Momentum adverts, which have used her name and deepfake video images of her to get people to invest in online trading platforms.
“Even at the SABC, they get inundated with calls asking about these investment things ‘that I am behind’. It’s truly heartbreaking,” she said.
“I’ve been approached by at least four or five people that have come directly to the SABC to talk to me about getting their money because they’ve invested it. ‘And now, how am I going to get this back?’” [they ask]. “Then the other thing is, it’s either that or people come to me and ask me for details of how to invest their money in this thing. They have got their money and want to give it to you,” Manas said.
“I’ve now had to have security escort me into and out of the building, because you just don’t know at any moment what can happen.
“Somebody even tracked down where my husband works … looking for their money.”
Read more: Leanne Manas speaks out about battling deepfake scams and identity theft
Banxso investors lose life savings
In another incident, an investor contacted Manas, saying they had invested a sum and wanted to increase it to R1 million because “they’re seeing how well their investment is doing but they just wanted to make sure that everything was okay”.
“I replied to them and said, ‘This is fake, you know. And then I got a bit scared because I realised that I don’t know who I’m talking to. I don’t know what I’m part of and what my identity is being used for,” she said.
Manas is also angry that platforms such as Facebook, YouTube and TikTok are benefitting financially from the adverts.
“Every single one of these posts are sponsored. So, the ‘syndicate’, whoever it is, is paying [Facebook parent company] Meta, they’re paying YouTube, they’re paying Facebook, they’re paying TikTok.
“They’re accepting the money and they’re boosting them on their platforms. If we had to invent a diet pill or an investment scheme or platform, it would never get traction like this. They have millions behind the advertising that they are spending on these sites,” she said.
“My email box is full every single day of [messages from] people asking me about this R4 800. I don’t have the capacity to respond to everyone. At one stage, I was responding to every single message.”
She said scammers had also impersonated her on WhatsApp using her photo, attempting to elicit investments.
“This has been a very difficult period for me to have to see my image being used for things that I don’t even know about.
“I know nothing about any of this investment scheme and it’s heartbreaking when you are sitting online and you suddenly see your own face pop up in front of you advertising something, as an AI version of yourself, trying to sell a product and you know that you have nothing to do with it,” Manas said.
“What hurts me even more is the fact that this gets reported repeatedly by myself and so many other people but nothing is done about it.
“These social media platforms allow this to continue and most of them, most of the ones that I’ve seen, in fact, all the ones that I’ve seen, are sponsored adverts. So, the platform is gaining from other people’s losses.
“This is unacceptable and it can’t go on because people are vulnerable out there.”
Manas said an IT security expert had tried to help her track down the perpetrators but did not manage to get to the bottom of it.
Pensioners Zona and Chris Bruyns have been battling for months to get a refund from Banxso, after the company offered the couple a partial, R600 000 “without prejudice” refund from the R1.71 million they lost on its platform.
“Their ‘complaints policy’ states that their turnaround time for finalising complaints is 30 days. Our complaint was lodged 2 May and the last time we heard from them was 14 June.
“We have since sent emails, requesting feedback, but nobody is responding,” Zona Bruyns said.
“In their last offer they made to us, which we refused, they admitted wrongdoings on their part and apologised, so they need to do the right thing and refund the money they … solicited from us so that we can move on with our lives. It is straightforward but it seems they are trying to cut corners and ignoring us now. They have ruined our lives and they did it with a smile.”
Bruyns said Banxso had claimed on many platforms it was refunding people who were lured to its platform through the fake ads but “we, as pensioners, have not seen a cent”.
John Jooste — who lost R204 800 after clicking on a deepfake advert featuring Musk, which he said also led him to Banxso’s trading platform — is also frustrated after the company initially offered him a paltry R4 800 refund, followed by an updated offer of R50 000 to be paid over three months.Read more: Leanne Manas speaks out about battling deepfake scams and identity theft
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Hanekom said Banxso was attending to these investors’ complaints.
“Both of the clients referred to have been positively engaged by our client regarding their complaints and/or claims, however, despite our client persistently following up, have not responded to their efforts in any manner,” he said.
“Our client has attended to virtually all complaints and/or claims received by it to date, with less than 10% still required to be attended to.
“All client complaints are audited by the company’s internal legal and compliance teams, and where deemed necessary, the appropriate reimbursements were offered,” Hanekom said.
However, both Bruyns and Jooste said they had asked Banxso to engage with them in writing and that the matter had not been resolved.
The Financial Sector Conduct Authority issued a warning about the Immediate Matrix adverts in December last year.
In April the authority said it was “investigating possible contraventions of financial sector laws by Banxso” and that the company was cooperating with the investigation, which Banxso general manager De Andrade also confirmed at the time.
Immediate Momentum had not responded to questions from the M&G by the time of publication.