Queensland couple Ron and Paula lost $220,000 from their super in 'deep-fake' scam featuring Gina Rinehart and Dick Smith

A couple have fallen prey to sophisticated 'deep-fake' scams that targeted thousands of dollars held in their superannuation fund.

Queenslanders Ron and Paula lost their entire super savings when they fell for a scam featuring the images of celebrities that promised to make them money in an online trading scheme. 

Sadly, it's the second time they had been duped by scammers, previously losing $220,000 to fraudsters using the same tactics.

'It's horrible, it's the worst feeling, you don't talk to your friends about it because you're embarrassed,' Paula told A Current Affair. 

'They put us on a rollercoaster ride, highs and lows and highs and lows … from a $350 investment to be talked into actually losing all my superannuation,' Ron said.

Artificial intelligence has made it possible for scammers to copy the faces and voices of people and use them to make fake ads.

To encourage Aussies to put their money into bogus investment scams, criminals have used AI to mimic some of Australia's biggest names, including Dick Smith, Gina Rinehart and Andrew 'Twiggy' Forrest.

While scrolling on the Facebook account of her granddaughter's school, Paula said she had come across scams using the image of A Current Affair host, Ally Langdon.

She had also seen the image of mining boss Gina Rinehart appear in feeds appearing to endorse schemes, saying it looked real. 

'There’s a scam going around with Gina Rinehart promoting online trading and you watch her lips and those words are coming from her lips,' Paula said.

Dick Smith's likeness was used in a deep-fake video to advertise an investment scheme. 

It looked and sounded so real, it even fooled him.

'I’m incredibly angry because when I first saw it I thought it was really me,' he told A Current Affair. 

'I thought they’d done an interview somewhere that I’d forgotten about but then I realised no, it wasn’t.'

Mr Smith wants Aussies to stay away from advertising on social media.

'I'm saying to fellow Australians, never ever buy anything that's advertised on Facebook and Instagram because you'll probably lose your money,' he said.

The realistic deep-fake scams have prompted Ms Rinehart to write to Mark Zuckerberg.  

Meanwhile, Mr Forrest is suing Meta (the owner of Facebook and Instagram) and people are calling on the government to pressure social media companies to eradicate scams.

The government's National Anti-Scam Centre's Scamwatch reported for 2023 Australians lost a combined total of over $455million, with over 280thousand reported scams.

For people who have fallen victim to the deep-fakes, it may be almost impossible to achieve justice.

'The first step in any legal proceeding is working out who you're going to enforce those rights against,' media lawyer Justin Quill told Yahoo.

'That's the biggest problem here … who do you sue over these sorts of scams? Where do you sue them? And, frankly, how do you sue them?'