Deepfake video of Bulgarian singer Azis used in TikTok giveaway scam
A fake TikTok profile used an AI-generated deepfake video of Bulgarian pop-folk singer Azis to run a financial scam, offering 20,000 euros to users who completed a challenge. The fraudulent account accumulated thousands of followers and over 500,000 views with repeated deepfake videos and fake user comments designed to appear authentic.
What happened
A fake profile on TikTok using the name @azisoriginal_offc created AI-generated deepfake videos of Bulgarian pop-folk singer Azis. In the videos, a synthesized version of Azis tells viewers: "Nobody in this world can overcome this challenge. If you pause the video correctly and follow me, I will send 20,000 euros, this is real."
The fraudulent account posted similar videos daily, overlaying identical text onto real footage of Azis from the internet and including fake comments from suspicious accounts in broken Bulgarian designed to authenticate the videos. The fake profile accumulated thousands of followers and more than 500,000 views.
Reported impact
The account successfully deceived thousands of TikTok users with the promise of 20,000 euros, causing economic and reputational harm. The scale of the deception and the daily upload of new fraudulent videos indicates the scam reached a large audience across Bulgaria and internationally, with hashtags targeting multiple countries.
Index analysis
The incident exemplifies a common pattern of identity fraud using AI-generated synthetic media. Deepfake technology enabled fraudsters to create convincing but false videos of a public figure at scale, and the use of fake supporting comments attempted to establish false credibility.
Classification
Sources and evidence
Sources not yet published
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