Instagram 'BMO' ads use AI deepfakes to scam banking customers

Instagram ads impersonating financial institutions like Bank of Montreal (BMO) and EQ Bank (Equitable Bank) are being used to target Canadian consumers with phishing scams and investment fraud. Some ads use AI-powered deepfake videos in an attempt to collect your personal information, while others use official branding to drive traffic outside of the platform to lookalike illicit domains that are not affiliated with banks. We have come across multiple instances of Instagram ads that may appear to be run by Canadian banks but are scams. An example ad shown below claims to be from "Eq Marketing" and closely mimics EQ Bank's branding and color scheme, while promising a rather optimistic interest yield of "4.5%". Tapping on it, however, takes you to a counterfeit RBCpromos1[.]cfd phishing website that is not affiliated with EQ Bank, and attempts to collect your banking credentials. The letters "RBC" in the phishing domain also imply that the domain could have been associated with other phishing campaigns targeting, for example, consumers of RBC or Royal Bank of Canada, one of the largest Canadian banks. Tapping "Yes, continue with my account" presents the user with a fraudulent "EQ Bank" login screen, prompting for banking credentials. By contrast, a legitimate ad from EQ Bank seen by us on platforms like Reddit leads visitors to the official eqbank.ca website (and is seen promoting a more realistic interest rate): Another fraudulent ad captioned 'BMO Belski' appears as a story ...