“Who hasn’t received aid from me? What are your needs right now?” Prabowo appears to ask viewers in the clip posted in November.
Those ensnared by the message were asked to contact a WhatsApp number and hand over between 250,000 and one million rupiah ($15-$60) as an “administrative fee” to get aid that never materialised.
And victims say the hoaxes are so sophisticated they leave others vulnerable to being conned too.
“I need money, but instead I’m asked to send money. They even made video calls with me, as if I were talking directly to them.”
But now that technology has fallen into the hands of criminals looking to make cold, hard cash.
AFP’s fact-checkers found the account behind the Prabowo clip has posted dozens of similar videos appearing to show various high-profile figures, including Indonesian Vice President Gibran Rakabuming Raka.
Police arrested a suspect who pocketed 65 million rupiah ($4,000) from the scam, Himawan Bayu Aji, director of the Indonesian National Cyber Crime Unit told reporters in February.
AFP Fact Check’s investigation found the spread of such videos had a much wider reach than the two accounts that police announced.
At least 22 TikTok accounts were touting the same fraudulent scheme since Prabowo took office in October, AFP journalists found, with some appearing to take advantage of his recent rise to the presidency.
Another account with thousands of followers has shared 100 videos since January alone, the majority featuring deepfake videos of the president offering cash.
Facebook parent Meta did not respond to AFP’s request for comment.
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“We have started to see deepfake videos since last year as AI tools have become more accessible and affordable,“ he told AFP.
Tech billionaire Elon Musk and Canada’s Prime Minister Justin Trudeau are among a string of celebrities targeted in recent years by sophisticated impersonations to push cash scams.
“We noticed the quality of these videos has improved over time. It has become more difficult to distinguish between fake and real videos,“ he added.
“The challenge is the volume of these scams.”
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