AI Deepfakes Are Impersonating Pastors to Try to Scam Their Congregations
Father Mike Schmitz, Catholic priest and podcaster, addressed his congregation of more than 1.2 million YouTube subscribers in November with an unusual homily. You couldn’t always trust the words that came out of his mouth, Schmitz said, because sometimes they weren’t really his words — or his mouth. Schmitz had become the target of AI-generated identity theft scams.
“You’re being watched by a demonic human,” the fake Schmitz said in a video that the real Schmitz, wearing an LL Bean jacket over his office suit, included in his PSA as an example. “You have to act quickly, because the places to send prayers are already sold out,” said another fake Schmitz with an hourglass behind him. “And the next trip won’t be for four months.” The fake Schmitz looked a little robotic as he urged viewers to click on a link and get their blessing before it’s too late.
“I can look at them and say, ‘That’s ridiculous, I would never say that,'” the real Schmitz, based in Duluth, Minn., said in his appeal video. “But people can’t necessarily say that. It’s a problem. It’s a really big problem.”
On Schmitz’s real video, some of the top comments from his supporters said they had seen other prominent Catholic figures impersonating AI videos, including the pope. According to Rachel Tobac, cybersecurity expert and CEO of SocialProof Security, this is because pastors have become extremely popular subjects in AI scams and other misleading media.
“If you’re on TikTok or Reels, they’ve probably come across your For You page,” says Tobac. “He’s someone who looks like a priest, wearing all the clothes, standing on a pulpit or on a stage or whatever you want to call it, and he seems to be speaking to his congregation with great enthusiasm.”
Pastors and ministers in Birmingham, Alabama, Freeport, New York, and Fort Lauderdale, Florida, have warned their followers about AI scams impersonating them in the form of direct messages, calls, and deepfakes. Alan Beauchamp, a pastor in the Ozarks, said his Facebook account was hacked, with the hacker posting a fake, possibly AI-generated, certificate for cryptocurrency trading with Beauchamp’s name and a caption inviting his followers to join him. A megachurch in the Philippines has received reports of fakes involving its pastors. An evangelical church in Nebraska issued a “scam alert” on Facebook, and a congregant posted a screenshot of texts purporting to come from one of its pastors in the comments.
It doesn’t help that many pastors and ministers who have growing online followings often solicit donations and sell things, but not the same things as their AI imitators. With the help of social media, religious authorities have been able to reach believers well beyond their neighborhoods, but the proliferation of content featuring their likenesses and voices has also provided an ideal opportunity for fraudsters using generative AI tools.
