Mrs Theresa Udemah was just idly scrolling through her Facebook after a hard day’s work when the image of a lady dressed as a Roman Catholic sister popped up with a half-cut orange in her hand. Intrigued, she watched as the lady poured bicarbonate soda on the face of the orange, and it started foaming.
As the supposed Reverend Sister was doing that, she started talking about some herbal ingredients which she said were assembled by some Roman Catholic priests and were capable of curing all manners of body pains, aches, arthritis, rheumatic pains, etcetera.
She said the head of the team that assembled the herbal ingredients was Cardinal Fridolin Ambongo Besungu, Archbishop of Kinshasa. At the mention of Fridolin, the image of the man seated in an armchair and another Lady appeared on the screen. The Lady was interviewing the supposed Cardinal about the herbal mixture, which he said took them several years of research to come up with.
According to the supposed Cardinal Fridolin, the final assemblage was done at the ‘Corpus Care Sanctuary’.
He said the efficacy of the herbs had even been certified by major international organisations that have shown interest in buying up the lot.
He assured consumers that once the ingredients were mixed in the right proportion and taken as prescribed, within 17 days the person would start seeing positive results.
At this juncture, a lady appeared on the screen testifying to the efficacy of the medicine and thanking the reverend father for making the herbs available to everyone. As she finished, a young man who claimed to be a medical doctor also came on the screen testifying to having used the herbs and urging people with pains to buy it.
After that, the supposed Father Fridolin came back on screen saying that he had few packs left and was ready to give out the remaining ones at a discounted rate.
He also added that people did not need to pay for the product until they were satisfied it was good.
He urged those watching to drop their phones numbers and email addresses so that their Sales representative could drop their orders. Mrs Udemah then sent in her phone number and email address.
It will be recalled that the popular Pax herbal medicine is a product of Rev. Father Anselm Adodo, at St. Benedict Monastery in Ewu-Esan, Edo State.
He founded the Pax Herbal Clinic and research laboratories in 1996.
According to him then, he started it to research, develop, and promote science– based traditional African medicine. This was one of the reasons she thought that it could be genuine
Nevertheless, she said that though she was listening to the supposed Rev. Father and the others, she still had her reservations.
She also disclosed that at one point, she was suspecting that those images could be AI and because of that, she started jotting down some of the Father’s sayings. For instance, she jotted down the ‘Corpus Care Sanctuary down’. She took note of the site ‘drjaramillo ‘. Site and took note of the Father’s name.
Narrating her experience, Udemah said that after disclosing her number and email, she contacted Google to confirm if there was a ‘Cardinal Fridolin ‘, instantly, it confirmed it was the Archbishop of Kinshasa and brought the man’s photo, which was a split image of the AI generated one. Next, she checked the site and found out it was a fake one.
She then checked the name of the sanctuary the Cardinal mentioned and confirmed it was fake.
Further checks on Google confirmed that all those human images that appeared on the screen marketing the so-called herbal medicine were all AI-generated. So, what’s the catch? Google in the chat told Mrs Udemeh to be alert, as the people will still contact her to deliver the products for a fee and also extract more information from her in order to hack into her finances.
According to Theresa, a day after that first encounter, she was contacted through WhatsApp on 08107214300. The profile photo was ‘Mathew 6:33’, followed by the printed verse. This was, of course, to give their victims the impression that they were genuine. Well, a female requested her address, an alternative phone number, her age and said that the products would be delivered to her at the price of N187,600. Playing along with the fraudsters, she gave an address in Ikeja and told them the time to come.
A few hours later, she got a message from ‘Unateus’: “Our delivery agent will contact you from 09090145592, security code: 8203. Ask the agent to say it when they call/arrive. Do not say it first. No code, no payment. BR, Naturallic”.
Now you may well ask, how many Theresa Udemahs are out there? How many people have fallen victim to this scam? The above story is one of the experiences that people are now passing through every day. AI-generated crime is on the rise, and people need to be extra careful.
The use of AI-generated images and deepfakes of high-profile individuals to scam consumers is rising sharply. Fraudsters are using advanced artificial intelligence tools to steal the likenesses of trusted celebrities, politicians, and business leaders.
This tactic, often referred to as ‘Celeb bait ‘, wraps fraudulent schemes in a false veneer of legitimacy, making them incredibly difficult for the average consumer to spot. The execution of this evil scheme usually falls into a few categories: fake endorsements, social media giveaways, impersonation and romance scams.
As regards fake endorsement, high profile figures are deep faked to promote fraudulent crypto currency platforms or suspicious high yield investment schemes. Social Media Giveaways, fabricated videos or images claim a celebrity is giving away expensive items, steering victims to malicious sites that harvest credit card details or advance fees. In highly personalised setups, scammers use AI personas, voice cloning, and deepfake videos to maintain elaborate relationships, convincing victims to send money for fabricated crises or medical emergencies.
This crime is on the rise. Government regulatory agencies must seriously engage in consumer education. This awareness must be carried through every part of the country; it must be intentional. Institutional security upgrades and stricter legal regulations must be in full force. Then consumers must be very vigilant.
The high-profile personalities whose images fraudsters are using their images should please issue out disclaimers as soon as they get wind of it.
His Eminence, the Archbishop of Kinshasa, Cardinal Fridolin, whose image was used in the above story, is yet to respond to our questions by the time we went to press. We will likely read his reactions by the next edition.
Please, if you have been a victim, do well to send your experience to the email address on this page. People will surely benefit and be wiser by reading it. ‘
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