Since last month's UK election, researchers at Fenimore Harper have discovered over 250 advertisements on Meta platforms that use deepfakes of Starmer.

A fraudulent cryptocurrency trading program named "Immediate Edge" is advertised in the advertising, with the promise of £1000 in daily gains.

In the first, the phony Starmer says, "Your life is about to change. As the prime minister of the United Kingdom and leader of the Labour Party, I am Keir Starmer. I was holding out for you. You're in luck today. You won't regret finding this page, I'm not sure how you found it.

Notices a phony advertisement "Good afternoon, distinguished citizens of the United Kingdom," states Prince William. With great pleasure, I declare that Prime Minister Keir Starmer's proposal and new platform have the full support of Prince William and the whole Royal Family."

When an ad is clicked, a landing page is displayed, asking users to provide their name, phone number, and email address. After that, the victims are contacted using this information to persuade them to fund the fraudulent trading site.

This week's Santander research reveals that 53% of British consumers either don't know what deepfake is or thought it was something else entirely, with only 17% of respondents saying they could spot a deepfake video with ease.

The bank has started a campaign to highlight the issue by producing its own deepfake movies with Santander fraud lead Chris Ainsley and "finfluencer" Mr. Money Jar. The goal is to highlight how realistic deepfakes are already and to advise British citizens on how to best defend themselves.