AI Scams Evade Crackdown in Nigeria as Sponsored Facebook Videos Falsely Claim Huge Earnings
Legit.ng journalist Ridwan Adeola Yusuf has over 5 years of experience in fact-checking and public-interest reporting.
Ikeja, Lagos State - Shady characters are harnessing Artificial Intelligence (AI) tools, paid Facebook ads, and visuals of influential people to target bigger pools of potential victims in Nigeria, keeping scam centres humming, even as the government and social media platforms try to crack down.
Data from the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) Internet Crime Complaint Centre in early April 2026 shows that Nigeria ranked 12th worldwide for global cybercrime complaints in 2025.
Source: Facebook
Africa's most populous nation also appeared among the countries most frequently receiving fraudulent wire transfers, underscoring how global these operations have become.
As more citizens go digital and AI rises, the surface area for scams expands as attackers continue to evolve their tactics.
While earlier scams were often flagged by poor grammar, generic greetings, and obvious spelling errors, AI tools, particularly Generative AI and Large Language Models (LLMs), produce flawless, natural-sounding content. Machine intelligence has fundamentally changed the landscape of scams, transforming previously amateurish attempts into personalised and somewhat convincing deceptions.
One of such social media posts, sponsored and designed to make people part with their money through the promise of hefty returns, claims that an investment of N430,000 (approximately $310) guarantees up to N14,000,000 ($10,400) monthly.
“I am Senator Natasha Akpoti, and I am going to reveal a secret to you. Today is your lucky day. I am not sure if everyone will be able to watch this video. But those who are lucky enough will get a real opportunity to change their lives. Starting today, you can earn from N14 million per month,” the digital character depicted in the video asserted. “It is important to understand one thing: opportunities like this can’t be opened up to everyone at once. The whole country would instantly turn into a nation of millionaires.”
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The video (archived here) emerged amid Nigeria’s ongoing economic hardship, a situation that has made 'easy money' a costly trap.
Stating that she was not exaggerating in her pitch, the purported Senator Akpoti-Uduaghan, a federal lawmaker representing Kogi Central, promoted early retirement and savings increment as the benefits of the supposed opportunity to Nigerians. She added that it was neither a forex-based scheme nor a pyramid scheme. Akpoti-Uduaghan, 46, is widely regarded as a philanthropist and social entrepreneur in Nigeria and has a long-standing record of humanitarian initiatives.
“This is a partnership with an international company with an excellent reputation, which, at our request, has provided access to an automated investment platform,” the figure speaking in the 2-minute 46-second video claims. “The programme we have developed uses artificial intelligence to accurately predict market behaviour and ensure stable profits. You don’t need to do anything; the system does everything for you. All you need to do is watch the results.”
According to her, no special knowledge is required, and the opportunity has been “tested,” with a small group of volunteers reportedly earning over N10 million ($7,400) in the first month.
“I say this with complete confidence: if you don’t earn at least N1 million ($740) in the first week, I will personally refund you N430,000.”
A sign-off message asked internet users to visit springbunnhopes.online and “leave your details.”
The Facebook post, published by a page called ‘Nigeria Daily Report’, has been shared multiple times.
Legit.ng scanned the comments on the Facebook post to understand how users responded to the claim. Over 1,000 people have reacted to the post, with several commenters asking if it was true.
Due to its enhanced facial animation, voice cloning, and emotional appeal, several people appear to have believed it.
One user, Usman Titi, said:
“Madam, thanks for your kindness over there, please.”
Likewise, Ademola Akanimodo commented:
“Thanks so much, mummy angel mi (sic) for the counsel!”
Chiamaka Precious Ogu wrote:
“Nice one.”
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Verification
This reporter’s review of the publishing page’s transparency record shows that it was created on August 25, 2023, under the name Gott Chris Siebor and was renamed on Monday, April 13, 2026. Based on the address and phone number provided, it may be managed from Vietnam, an Asian country where cybercriminals of various nationalities are known to operate.
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When contacted, Michael Idoko, the media aide to Senator Akpoti-Uduaghan, denied that the outspoken legislator endorsed the promoted ‘opportunity’.
He told Legit.ng:
“It’s fake. It is a manipulated clip that appears to feature my principal’s voice and image. It is entirely fabricated and should not be trusted.”
Legit.ng observed that while the audio aligns with the lip movements in some instances, it is inconsistent in others, suggesting that the video may have been artificially generated.
Seeing this possibility, this reporter analysed the audio using Hiya CGI Detector, an AI detection tool. The result produced a probability score of 2 out of 100. The tool also indicated that the sampled voice is 'likely fake'.
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Shortly after this reporter came across the alleged Senator Akpoti-Uduaghan–endorsed investment opportunity on Wednesday, April 15, 2026, four more similar posts surfaced featuring public figures, including Nigerian opposition leader Peter Obi, billionaire businessman Aliko Dangote, and media personality Kadaria Ahmed. All instances appeared within a one-hour window, seemingly driven by Meta’s ad-personalisation system, and all were sponsored content.
See the screenshots below:
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In the days that followed, no fewer than five public messages persuading Facebook users to click on malicious links or share sensitive information were spotted. More had been flagged in the past.
Legit.ng analysed one of the videos featuring Obi, a political figure with a substantial and passionate support base known as the ‘Obidients’, using Hive AI. The result from the synthetic media detection tool showed an 82.2 per cent probability that the content was artificially generated, indicating a high likelihood of AI manipulation.
Source: Original
Yet another manipulated video
Legit.ng reviewed a video bearing Channels Television’s watermark, which featured Ahmed, a broadcast veteran and media entrepreneur. In the clip (archived here), Seun Okinbaloye, a Channels Television anchor, is seen introducing Ahmed as presenting an investment project to Nigerians “on behalf of the government.” The video, watched by over 50,000 times, then cuts to another segment showing Ahmed on Arise News’ The Morning Show.
This abrupt switch is inconsistent and highly unlikely, as both broadcast platforms are competitors.
Moreover, Ahmed could not have spoken “on behalf of the government” as she is not a public official and has never occupied one.
Using the InVID-WeVerify tool, Legit.ng extracted keyframes from the 1-minute 30-second video and conducted reverse image searches.
This revealed that part of the main segment of the clip was taken from a video uploaded to YouTube by Arise News on August 3, 2022, in which the RadioNow chief executive officer (CEO) spoke about the responsibilities of journalists to the public and society.
It can be watched below:
Legit.ng was unable to find the original footage of Okinbaloye from the alleged television programme, but the background suggests it is from an episode of Channels Television’s weekday show, Politics Today, the station’s widely-followed current affairs programme.
Meanwhile, the video showed purported beneficiaries, but the lower-third graphics were missing, a very unusual omission in Channels Television’s broadcasts.
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Billymccallion.com is the “official platform” on which viewers of the Facebook clip are urged to quickly register in order to 'earn $700 a day'.
Records obtained from WHOIS, a public database of domain registration information, show that billymccallion.com is registered with Namecheap, Inc., a U.S.-based web hosting company.
Data indicate that the domain was registered on November 29, 2006, last updated on December 3, 2025, and is set to expire in November 2026.
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Investigations by the reporter uncovered that Billy McCallion is a real individual working in the creative and digital services sector, based in Ayr, Ayrshire, Scotland, United Kingdom (UK).
Billy McCallion is listed as a professional who builds and manages websites for clients, including services such as logo and poster design. He appears on Yell, a UK marketplace for finding local businesses, as a web designer and photographer based near Ayr.
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Billy McCallion’s information on Yell UK, a digital marketing and online directory business in the United Kingdom.
When this reporter clicked the website option on Yell to visit Billy McCallion Website Design’s page, it notably led to http://www.billymccallion.com/, the site associated with the aforementioned suspected investment scheme that manipulated Channels Television’s visuals.
This sudden shift in the site’s content, from a personal, portfolio platform to an online brokerage, is a typical red flag associated with fraudulent digital investment channels.
Meta rakes in fortune amid deluge of fraudulent ads
Meta, owners of Facebook, internally projected in late 2024 that it would generate about 10% of its overall annual revenue (or $16 billion) from running advertising for scams and banned goods.
As reported by Reuters in November 2025, a cache of previously unreported documents showed that the social-media giant for at least three years failed to identify and stop an avalanche of ads that exposed Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp’s billions of users to fraudulent e-commerce, spurious investment schemes, illegal online casinos, and the sale of banned medical products.
On average, the company’s platforms display an estimated 15 billion “higher-risk” scam ads with clear signs of fraud to users daily. Meta earns about $7 billion in annualised revenue from this category of scam ads yearly, a late 2024 document stated.
The details of Meta’s confidential self-analysis are drawn from documents created between 2021 and 2025 across its finance, lobbying, engineering and safety divisions. Together, they reflect Meta’s efforts to quantify the scale of illicitness on its platforms and the company’s hesitancy to crack down in ways that could harm its business interests. Meta Platforms, Inc., founded by Mark Zuckerberg, has a global business presence, with its products active in over 100 countries and territories across Africa, Asia-Pacific, Europe, Latin America, and North America.
Meta also acknowledged in other internal documents that some of its main competitors were doing a better job at weeding out fraud on their platforms.
“It is easier to advertise scams on Meta platforms than Google,” concluded an internal Meta review in April 2025 of online communities where fraudsters discuss their trade.
The document does not lay out the reasons behind that submission.
Amid the scrutiny, Meta spokesperson Andy Stone argued via a statement that the documents reviewed by Reuters “present a selective view that distorts Meta’s approach to fraud and scams.”
Stone stated:
“We aggressively fight fraud and scams because people on our platforms don’t want this content, legitimate advertisers don’t want it, and we don’t want it either.”
"Over the past 18 months, we have reduced user reports of scam ads globally by 58 per cent and, so far in 2025, we’ve removed more than 134 million pieces of scam ad content,” Stone claimed.
Beyond establishing that the independently reviewed videos in this report were fabricated, Legit.ng also consulted experts to understand what Meta’s acceptance of revenue from sources it suspects of fraud implies.
Dr Ridwan Abiola Kolawole of the Department of Communication and Language Arts, University of Ibadan (UI), Nigeria, said that while Meta has positive impacts such as fostering socialisation and helping businesses grow, the “bourgeois” tendencies of tech platforms will always surface.
“Tech businesses are owned by bourgeois techpreneurs. So, many a time, the motive is to competitively raise profits and expand their reach. When businesses (genuine and fake) bring services to advertise, they accept them with little scrutiny,” Kolawole, a past awardee of the Social Science Research Council’s Next Generation Social Sciences in Africa programme, said.
Ethical issues by techpreneurs should be reviewed and made comprehensive, Kolawole proffered.
The degree of infractions differs from country to country. Several countries and regional blocs have established strict regulations for digital platforms, with 2025 and 2026 marking a period of intense legal accountability for Meta. Key actions revolve around algorithmic accountability, antitrust concerns, data privacy, and child safety.
“Such regulations take care of these ethical ‘infidelities’," Kolawole said. However, some countries are lethargic, which gives rise to job fraud or scams by social media platforms."
Stressing that the trend of Facebook ads fuelling phishing scams in Nigeria is real, the university tutor challenged authorities to "clean up their social media space of mess."
“Nigeria suspended Twitter for activities that are capable of undermining its corporate existence. Before Twitter operations were restored, it reached an agreement with Nigeria. Unlike before, Nigeria dictated its own terms. That is what some countries do to clean their social media of mess.
“We’ve seen Zuckerberg taken to court in the US over his platform’s operation. There should be sanctions; otherwise, the frauds being perpetrated not just on Meta but on others will continue to rise,” Dr Kolawole warned.
What have Nigerian authorities been doing?
In September 2025, the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) raised the alarm over a surge in investment scams that use AI to dupe Nigerians with promises of guaranteed returns and fake endorsements from public figures.
In a statement, the regulator said several online platforms are operating without SEC registration and have been promoting AI-powered trading systems that promise unrealistic profits.
The commission stressed that the operators have been using digitally manipulated videos and other AI-generated content to give fraudulent schemes an appearance of legitimacy.
It lamented that manipulated clips of politicians, celebrities and TV presenters are being circulated via Facebook ads, Instagram reels and Telegram groups to fabricate endorsements and testimonials.
The commission added that partnerships with the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) and the Nigerian Financial Intelligence Unit (NFIU) are being strengthened to enable data-sharing and joint enforcement actions.
“We are moving from reactive to predictive oversight. This is essential in combating fraud and systemic risks in our market,” the Commission emphasised.
Per The Punch, the regulator said it has also engaged social media companies to clamp down on misleading ads and advised influencers against promoting unlicensed investment schemes.
“Any influencer or blogger found to be complicit in promoting illegal platforms will face regulatory sanctions or even prosecution,” the SEC warned.
Then in March 2026, Emomotimi Agama, the SEC director-general (DG), disclosed that the regulator had shut down more than 400 fraudulent investment schemes across Nigeria in the past three years.
The DG, who was represented by Bola Ajomale, the executive commissioner for operations at the SEC, explained that the commission has intensified enforcement actions and investor awareness campaigns in response to the growing number of fraudulent investment schemes.
“Over the last three years, we have investigated and shut down at least 400 of these so-called schemes,” The Cable quoted the SEC helmsman as saying. “We saw a tremendous increase in them last year, and a couple of them involved have been arrested and prosecuted.
“That is the direction we are heading as the SEC works to bring order and create a safe investment space for all of us.”
SEC has also made a video educating the public. It can be watched below via this X post.
Elsewhere, finance analysts spoke on whether investment opportunities that promise high returns can realistically come with a low risk of loss, as some of these Facebook clips suggest.
Source: Facebook
Adekunle Razaq Aderibigbe, a business advisor and compliance professional, said that if an investment promises quick returns with little or no risk, investors should take a step back.
“In the financial management space, there is no such theory as an investment that promises high returns with low risk. That's like saying a male can be impregnated to give birth,” he analogised.
Similarly, French-born financial market writer and trader Olumide Adesina noted that higher potential returns are only possible by taking on higher risk.
“There is a positive correlation with risk and return; the higher the risk, the higher the chances for higher returns.
“Safest investments like government bonds and bank deposits usually offer the lowest return.
“Most of these ads are scams designed to lure uninformed people,” he cautioned.
Conclusion
Legit.ng’s findings confirm that the videos claiming to show prominent Nigerians endorsing online empowerment schemes are not authentic. Criminals are increasingly using generative AI to facilitate financial fraud. The public is therefore advised to remain cautious.
Proofreading by James Ojo, copy editor at Legit.ng.
Source: Legit.ng
