Cyber Threat Review – The Internet Safety Hotline
In this special cyber threat report, ISOC-IL’s Internet Safety Hotline exposes a new wave of sophisticated financial scams that exploit artificial intelligence (AI) and social media algorithms to deceive users en masse. The report, based on hundreds of real incidents tracked by the Hotline between 2023 and 2025, outlines how fraudsters deploy deepfake videos, impersonate public figures, and exploit paid advertising platforms—particularly Meta’s suite of tools—to target vulnerable users with hyper-personalized financial fraud campaigns.
Loading...
Reload document 
Open in new tab These scams are not only more persuasive but also harder to detect, thanks to generative AI and platform features like dynamic ads, ad cloaking, and weak to nonexistent verification processes. The report shows how Israeli users are led from visually credible ads (often featuring Israeli celebrities or politicians) to fake investment sites, where they are manipulated into sharing personal and financial data or making direct deposits they can never recover.
An example of a fraud campaign “marketing funnel,” from page 8 of the report:
Real screenshots on pages 11–19 show deepfake campaigns impersonating figures like Elon Musk, Netta Barzilai, and government officials.
ISOC-IL calls for urgent reform—at both platform and state levels. Recommendations include better AI content detection, stricter ad transparency, enforcement of deepfake labeling, and national legislation aligned with global standards like the EU’s Digital Services Act. This report is a wake-up call for policymakers, platforms, and the public: AI-driven scams are not a future threat—they are a present and rapidly evolving danger.
Click here to read the full report (PDF)