England: a man told the Guardian he lost £27,000 to a Tbilisi call-centre fraud after a deepfake video of broadcaster Ben Fogle led him to a crypto site
A man in his 30s from East Anglia, England, told the Guardian (pseudonym used) that he watched a video of broadcaster Ben Fogle apparently promoting cryptocurrency trading on a site called AdmiralsFX, entered his details, was called by what turned out to be a Tbilisi call centre, paid a £250 buy-in and within a month had handed over £27,000, about a year's salary. The Guardian describes the clip as a deepfake, a digitally doctored video Fogle had publicly warned about in spring 2024. The account was published in March 2025 as part of a Guardian, SVT and OCCRP investigation of a leak from the Georgian operation, which the Guardian says duped at least 6,179 people and whose victims frequently cited the deepfake ads as the reason they went ahead.
- AI system
- Unidentified video tool
- Occurred
- 2024
- Reported
- 5 March 2025
- Event location
- United Kingdom, Georgia
- What the AI did
- Depicted or impersonated the person
- Reported harm
- Financial Loss
- Whose AI use
- Someone else’s AI use
- Setting
- Finance · Everyday life
- Evidence
- AI involvement reported · Causal attribution alleged · 1 source
- 4 claims: 4 reported. 4 open questions
- People reported harmed
- 1 person
AI system as recorded: Deepfake video tool, not identified, said by the Guardian to have produced a digitally doctored video of broadcaster Ben Fogle, taken from an ITV This Morning appearance, promoting a cryptocurrency trading site; Fogle himself called the clip a deepfake
What Happened
In March 2025 the Guardian published an investigation, based on a leak of internal records from a Tbilisi call-centre operation shared by Swedish broadcaster SVT and the Organized Crime and Corruption Reporting Project, into an investment fraud that the newspaper's analysis says took about $35m from at least 6,179 people from May 2022. The article opens with a man in his 30s from East Anglia, given the pseudonym Mark. He told the Guardian he watched a video of the broadcaster Ben Fogle apparently promoting cryptocurrency trading through a site called AdmiralsFX, entered his details, was contacted by a call centre and paid a £250 buy-in. Within a month he had handed over £27,000, which the Guardian says was the equivalent of a year's salary.
The Guardian describes the clip as a digitally doctored video reached through a fictional news article, and reports that Fogle had posted on Instagram in spring 2024 that a deepfake of him from ITV's This Morning was circulating on Facebook advertising crypto and was a scam. The UK Financial Conduct Authority had already warned that AdmiralsFX had been created by fraudsters. The Guardian says victims of the operation frequently cited the deepfake ads as the reason they pressed ahead, and that images of other public figures, including Martin Lewis and Zoe Ball, were used in the same way.
According to the Guardian, the operation showed victims a purpose-built trading screen with fake profits and told them they were trading crypto with AI technology; the man said the platform looked real. When he tried to move £12,000, two banks blocked the transfers and his adviser steered him to open a new account. Demands for fees followed requests to withdraw. The Guardian reported that Georgia's prosecutor's office said it was looking into the network. The man told the paper he was resigned to his loss and was speaking up to warn younger people. The dates of his viewing and payments are not stated.
Reported harm
The man told the Guardian he handed over £27,000, about a year's salary, within a month of watching the deepfake video and being called by the call centre.
How Harm Occurred
A deepfake video of a well-known broadcaster lent a fraudulent crypto site the credibility of a trusted public figure; the viewer entered his details after watching it, which handed his contact to a call centre whose agents, fake trading screens and fee demands extracted £27,000 over a month.
Outcome
OngoingThe Guardian reported that Georgia's prosecutor's office said it was looking into the network and that UK parliamentarians were pressing for a legislative response; another UK victim quoted in the article said Action Fraud told him the police could not do anything. No arrest, charge or recovery is reported for the man's loss.
What remains unknown
- When the man watched the video and made his payments; the Guardian dates only Fogle's warning (spring 2024) and the operation (from May 2022).
- The tool used to make the video and whether any forensic examination was performed.
- Whether the man reported the loss to police or recovered any money.
- How many of the operation's victims were drawn in by deepfake ads; the Guardian says frequently but gives no number.
What the evidence supports
AI involvement: reported. The Guardian describes the video the man watched as a deepfake: a digitally doctored clip of broadcaster Ben Fogle, taken from an ITV This Morning appearance, made to promote the AdmiralsFX crypto site; Fogle himself had publicly called it a deepfake in spring 2024. The man told the Guardian he entered his details after watching that video, was then called by the operation and lost £27,000, so the generated video impersonating the broadcaster toward him (depicted_or_impersonated) is the described link to the loss; the Guardian adds that the operation's victims frequently cited the deepfakes as the reason they pressed ahead. The tool is not identified and no forensic examination of the clip is reported, so the status is reported. The scammers' claim that victims were trading with 'AI technology' is a sales line and is not treated as AI involvement.
4 claims: 4 reported. What the statuses mean
Reported The Guardian reported that a man in his 30s from East Anglia, given the pseudonym Mark, watched a video of broadcaster Ben Fogle apparently promoting cryptocurrency trading through a website called AdmiralsFX, entered his details, was then contacted by a call centre, paid a £250 buy-in and within a month had handed over £27,000, which the Guardian described as the equivalent of a year's salary.
Causal attribution. The man's own account to the Guardian, which changed his name; no bank record or police report was inspected.
- theguardian.com(opens in new tab) supports · English
'I watched the video [of] Ben Fogle, like trading,' Mark said, recalling how the clip had promoted a cryptocurrency website called AdmiralsFX. 'So I just bang some details in [and] then I was contacted [by a call centre]. It was a £250 buy-in'; 'Within a month, he had handed over £27,000 – the equivalent of a year's salary'; 'One of those taken in was Mark*'; '* Names have been changed'
Reported The Guardian described the Fogle clip as a digitally doctored video linked from a fictional news article, and reported that Fogle had posted on Instagram in spring 2024 that a deepfake of him taken from ITV's This Morning was circulating on Facebook advertising crypto and was a scam.
Causal attribution. The Guardian's characterisation of the video and Fogle's own statement; no forensic examination of the clip is reported.
- theguardian.com(opens in new tab) supports · English
'Not sure I need to highlight this,' the broadcaster posted on Instagram during the spring of 2024, 'but the deepfake of me from [ITV's] This Morning … circulating on Facebook [and] advertising crypto is a scam.'; 'Fogle's warning showed a fictional news article, linking to a digitally doctored video, but not everybody noticed.'
Reported According to the Guardian's analysis of the leaked files, at least 6,179 people were duped by the Tbilisi call-centre operation, which took about $35m from May 2022; the UK Financial Conduct Authority had already warned that AdmiralsFX had been created by fraudsters; victims frequently cited the deepfakes as the reason they pressed ahead; and images of other public figures, including Martin Lewis and Zoe Ball, were also used in the ads.
Causal attribution. The Guardian's own analysis of leaked records; the 6,179 figure covers the whole operation and is not a count of people deceived by deepfakes.
- theguardian.com(opens in new tab) supports · English
'Analysis of the files suggests at least 6,179 people were duped by an industrial-scale boiler room fraud operating inside three plush-looking offices in Tbilisi'; 'AdmiralsFX, the investment platform Mark had started using, had already prompted a notification by the UK's Financial Conduct Authority stating it had been created by fraudsters "to scam people"'; 'Victims of the Georgian scam still frequently cited the deepfakes as the reason they pressed ahead.'; 'Other celebrities whose images were used – including the money expert Martin Lewis and the radio DJ Zoe Ball'
Reported The Guardian reported that the operation used purpose-built software showing a seemingly live trading screen on which victims were told they were trading crypto with AI technology and saw fake profits; Mark said the platform looked real and that he was making good money, and that when victims asked to withdraw they were met with demands for fees. Mark said two banks blocked a £12,000 transfer and his adviser steered him to open a new account; he later said he was resigned to his loss and was speaking up to warn younger people.
Causal attribution. The Guardian's account of the leaked material and Mark's interview; the 'AI technology' trading claim is the scammers' sales line, not a described AI system, and is recorded only as part of the deception.
- theguardian.com(opens in new tab) supports · English
'Key to the deception was specially built software displaying a seemingly live trading screen featuring financial market tickers, charts and news about Elon Musk. Victims were told they were using AI technology to trade in crypto currencies.'; '"On the platform, it all looks real, you know? I was making good money," Mark said.'; 'Mark said he had tried to send £12,000 from Revolut and HSBC, only for both those banks to block the transfers. His adviser then pointed him towards setting up a new account, which worked.'; 'Mark feels resigned to his own loss and is now attempting to do for others what Fogle tried to do for him'
Sources
1 source inspected. Sources that repeat one account do not corroborate each other.
- The Guardian, 5 March 2025: how Tbilisi call-centre scammers using deepfake celebrity ads duped 6,000 people (leak investigation with OCCRP and SVT)(opens in new tab)
s1 · theguardian.com · News report · English · Inspected · 5 March 2025 · Primary
How the sources were read, and where the events happened
Read in English by the research agent (an AI) on 2026-10-09; no translation was involved and no human reviewer read the article. The Guardian, 5 March 2025, investigation based on a data leak shared by SVT and OCCRP, with the Guardian's own interviews of pseudonymised victims; HTTP 200. Applies to s1.
Event countries: United Kingdom, Georgia. Affected-person countries: United Kingdom. Court countries: Unknown.
The Guardian describes the man as from East Anglia (England, GB) and places the operation's call-centre agents, who called and persuaded victims including the man, in offices in Tbilisi, Georgia (GE). No court proceeding is reported; Georgia's prosecutor's office is said to be looking into the network.
Reviewed for publication 2026-10-09: Published as a single-source first-person account relayed by the Guardian in a leak-based investigation: the newspaper interviewed the man under a changed name, describes the broadcaster video he watched as a deepfake, and reports his £27,000 loss and the call-centre mechanism. Every claim is attributed to the man or to the Guardian's analysis, the account is pseudonymous, the event date is left at year precision with the uncertainty stated, and the operation-wide victim figure is not converted into a count.
People described
One man in his 30s from East Anglia, England, interviewed by the Guardian under a changed name, who lost £27,000 after watching the deepfake video and being called by the Tbilisi call centre; the Guardian says other victims of the same operation also cited deepfakes but does not count them
People reported harmed in this case
1 person
0 AI participants · 1 other person harmed
One person is counted: the man the Guardian interviewed, who says the deepfake video led him to the site and who lost £27,000. The Guardian says victims of the operation frequently cited deepfakes but gives no number for them, and those people are outside this case, which covers only the interviewed man; the 6,179 figure is the newspaper's estimate for the whole fraud and is not tied to the deepfake ads. He was deceived by a video made by others and is not counted as a direct AI user.
Counted once within this case. The same person may appear in other cases. This count does not establish AI causation.
Tags
Cite this case
Compiled per our published methodology: verification statuses, sourcing standards, and corrections process.
APA
NOPE. (2026). England: a man told the Guardian he lost £27,000 to a Tbilisi call-centre fraud after a deepfake video of broadcaster Ben Fogle led him to a crypto site. AI incidents. https://nope.net/incidents/2024-england-man-loses-27000-pounds-to-tbilisi-call-centre-fraud-after-deepfake-broadcaster-crypto-video
BibTeX
@misc{2024_england_man_loses_27000_pounds_to_tbilisi_call_centre_fraud_after_deepfake_broadcaster_crypto_video,
title = {England: a man told the Guardian he lost £27,000 to a Tbilisi call-centre fraud after a deepfake video of broadcaster Ben Fogle led him to a crypto site},
author = {NOPE},
year = {2026},
howpublished = {AI incidents},
url = {https://nope.net/incidents/2024-england-man-loses-27000-pounds-to-tbilisi-call-centre-fraud-after-deepfake-broadcaster-crypto-video}
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