- Minister and CEO under attack
- Social media and voice scams
- Saudi deepfakes surged by 600%
The UAE’s economy minister, Abdullah Bin Touq Al Marri, sparked interest earlier this year by appearing on social media to promote investment opportunities.
Now, the government official has acknowledged that he has fallen victim to deepfake technology, which utilizes artificial intelligence to create realistic yet deceptive videos, images, or audio by mimicking someone’s likeness, speech, or actions.
During his speech at Gitex 2025 this week, Al Marri stated that scammers had exploited his image to advertise investment frauds on social platforms.
“I want to stress that I will never endorse such schemes. You won’t see me encouraging anyone to invest in shares,” Al Marri reassured the audience.
Waleid Al Mesmari, president of space and cyber technologies at the Abu Dhabi defense company Edge, shared with AGBI that he had also been a victim of a deepfake orchestrated by a colleague, showing him supporting a rival team of his favorite football club.
Detection
While both cases turned out to be harmless, they highlight the rapid blurring of lines between reality and deception, raising concerns about trust, credibility, and safety in the age of generative AI.
“We need technology that can detect deepfakes to protect not only myself but humanity as a whole,” stated Al Marri.
In one of the most notorious AI-driven frauds to date, scammers utilized deepfake voice tech to impersonate a company executive, convincing a UAE bank to transfer $35 million in 2021.
“The prevalence of deepfake content is skyrocketing, and the Middle East is a key target,” remarked Jonathan Micael, a security researcher at cybersecurity firm Acronis TRU.
Globally, this technology has also been wielded against sports figures, celebrities, politicians, and notable business leaders.
Further reading:
Further reading:
According to data from Sumsub, a verification and identity fraud firm, deepfake incidents jumped by 900 percent year-on-year in Iraq, 600 percent in Saudi Arabia, 350 percent in Iran, 200 percent in Kuwait, and 14 percent in the UAE in the first quarter of 2024.
“The widespread availability of this technology represents a significant risk to businesses worldwide, extending well beyond the UAE and the broader GCC region,” commented Rob Woods, director of fraud and identity at LexisNexis Risk Solutions.
Deloitte forecasts that global losses attributed to GenAI and deepfakes could reach $40 billion in the US alone by 2027.
“This underscores the pressing need for sophisticated identity verification solutions to combat these emerging threats,” Woods added.
AGBI is an official media partner for this year’s Gitex – stay updated with our exclusive technology coverage during the event.
