Nigel Farage and Bank of England governor Andrew Bailey have condemned deepfake social media adverts circulating on X, which falsely depict them in a physical confrontation.
These posts lead to fabricated news articles which claimed Mr Farage confronted Mr Bailey on BBC’s Question Time.
The articles promote investment schemes, which Mr Bailey branded as “scams” designed to exploit people.
The Bank of England has reported the videos to X and informed Reform UK.
Mr Bailey said: “Unfortunately, fake adverts impersonating the Bank of England and other central banks are on the rise.
“These scams are designed to criminally exploit the public, especially the vulnerable, when they are online.
“I would urge everyone to stay vigilant and report these scams. That way authorities can better root out digital deception like this and permanently remove the fraudsters responsible for what is a truly online scourge.”
Mr Farage said on X: “You may have seen some bizarre AI videos on this platform today.
“Whilst Andrew Bailey and I have our disagreements, I would never take it that far!”
Cybersecurity experts Bitdefender told The Telegraph: “This is a global, co-ordinated investment scam ecosystem.”
It said the network appears to be tied to Russian-language criminal scammers pursuing “financially motivated criminal activity”.
A spokesman said its researchers were “confident that it is highly likely the X campaign” was part of the same scam network it uncovered on Facebook.
X has been approached for comment.
Nigel Farage has been the subject of fake AI-generated content in recent years, with one social media post claiming to share a heartwarming story about how the Reform UK leader and his partner Laure Ferrari heroically rescued 47 dogs after buying an entire shelter that was on the verge of closure.
Experts say the posts are part of a new trend offering bogus “good news” stories about high-profile figures in a bid to “weaponise empathy” and drive engagement.
Investigators from charity Full Fact have uncovered around 100 similar posts from a number of accounts. In total, the posts have prompted more than 380,000 total reactions – suggesting many are falling for false narratives which they say are being “churned out at an industrial scale”.
