Skip to content
Submit incident
AII-1002-06371
ReportedReported by fewer than three independent publishers, with no official finding.Supporting sources are pending verification.

Greek journalist's face and voice deepfaked to promote medicines

Greek journalist Nikos Chatzinikolaou reported that his face and voice were deepfaked to promote pharmaceutical products in fraudulent online advertisements. He warned the public that the products were dangerous and urged followers not to purchase them.

26 July 2025 Β· Nikos Chatzinikolaou Β· Fraud, scams and manipulation
26 July 2025
AII-1002-06371
Quick facts
Category
Fraud, scams and manipulation
Country
Greece
Date
26 July 2025
Drafted by
Raidu Incident Detection

What happened

Nikos Chatzinikolaou, a journalist and news presenter for ANT1, reported being the victim of a deepfake fraud scheme. Unidentified actors used AI to create synthetic videos combining his face and voice to promote pharmaceutical products in online advertisements.

Chatzinikolaou announced the fraud on social media platform X on 26 July 2025, warning followers not to purchase the pharmaceutical products being promoted using his deepfaked likeness.

Reported impact

Chatzinikolaou warned that the pharmaceutical products being promoted were dangerous and that anyone committing fraud to sell products was deceiving consumers about the safety and quality of the goods.

Classification

Category
Fraud, scams and manipulation
Industry
Healthcare, drugs and biotechnology
Country
Greece
Harm status
Potential harm
Intent
Intentional
Timing
Unknown
Harm types
Economic or property, Reputational
Harmed
Consumers
Failure modes
Deepfake image, Deepfake video, Manipulation or dark pattern, Voice clone
AI systems
Unidentified AI deepfake system

Sources and evidence

Sources not yet published

This record was researched and written by the Index from original reporting. Its sources are still being verified by an editor, and they are listed here once that check is complete. Until then the record carries no reviewer.

How sources are verifiedSuggest a source for this incident