AI visuals of fighting Australian politicians lure viewers to investment scam

"The moment that broke Australia: Jacqui Lambie vs Angus Taylor. He told people to 'budget better'. She told him how she survived on $36 a day with two kids," reads a post shared on X on June 10, 2026. "Absolute carnage. Over 5 million views."

It includes images of Tasmanian Senator Lambie appearing to wind up for a punch as she's held back, and opposition Liberal Party leader Taylor holding a tissue to his bloodied nose.

The images bear the logo of Australia's ABC News and carry a link that leads to a page that mimics the outlet's website with a supposed story about its weekly political panel programme, Insiders.

"Jacqui Lambie destroys Angus Taylor on Insiders," reads the headline.

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Screenshots of the false X post and the fake ABC News report taken on June 15, 2026, with the red X's and AI tags added by AFP

Other bogus visuals include Lambie nursing a bloody nose in a May 11 X post that has since been removed, and Taylor tossing water in her face.

Screenshots of the fake ABC News story were also shared by users on Instagram and Facebook, with some praising Lambie for going up against Taylor. 

"WOW!! Jacqui Lambie served it up to Angus Taylor," wrote a user who shared the images, while another said "good on her". 

But the fight on ABC News's Insiders programme never happened, with the Australian broadcaster confirming the images "are fake" (archived link).

"There are an increasing number of scam posts on non-ABC platforms and the ABC takes what action on them it can," a spokesperson told AFP in a June 12 email.

The spokesperson also referred to an update on its help centre advising users to "stay alert to scams" (archived link).

"The ABC encourages our audience to exercise extreme caution regarding fake social media advertisements, QR codes, articles and emails which purport to be from the ABC," reads the update posted a month ago.

"This content may be staged to look like ABC material."

The spokesperson added: "The ABC is very concerned about mis- and dis-information and, in particular, content that is not clearly disclosed as fake, or that seeks to exploit the trust audiences place in the ABC’s brands and people."

'Fake ads with my face'

Senator Lambie had also issued a warning in April on her official Instagram and Facebook pages, saying she was "being targeted by AI scammers" (archived here and here). 

"They're using fake videos, fake articles and fake ads with my face, body and voice to try and trick people into investment scams. It is not me," she said in an April 28 post. 

"I have not endorsed any of this. I am not promoting any investment scheme. I have not done these interviews."

"Please don't click the links, don't put in your details, and don't send any money."

A spokesperson for Taylor also condemned the fabricated ABC News story and X posts.

"Angus has a thick skin and can take a joke, but fake AI content like this is garbage and people should treat it that way," they said in a June 15 email.

Investment scams

An analysis of the site found several clues indicating it is not a genuine ABC News page.

The domain name is not abc.net.au, while the writer of the article is listed as Jacqui Lambie, the senator herself who is the subject of the story. 

The content is also written like a script, where entire quotes for each politician are written out -- contrary to the norm for most news stories. 

The end of the article promotes "Vault Wealthholm", which it claims is an investment platform and has a link enticing people to "start with $350" as a minimum deposit. 

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Screenshots of the fake ABC news site to highlight discrepancies, like how the byline matches the subject of the article, the news article's script-like format, and an ad for an investment platform at the end. The highlights and AI tags on the photos were added by AFP

Clicking on any link on the fake site also leads users to a chat with "Charlotte" with Vault Wealthholm.

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Screenshot of the fake trading platform's chat taken on June 10

A search for the platform on the Australian Securities and Investments Commission website, which regulates financial services in the country, brings up no results (archived link).

Running the images through AI detection tools -- including the Verification Plugin co-developed by AFP and Google's SynthID -- also brings up results that they were AI-generated.

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Screenshots of images from the fake ABC site being found as being AI-generated, with the white AI tag added by AFP

A spokesperson for Australia's National Anti-Scam Centre said they were aware of scammers impersonating well-known public figures, including politicians (archived link).

"While this is usually to provide fake endorsements of products or services in advertisements, in this case it appears to feature controversial content designed to lure viewers to view the content and lead them to scam investment opportunities," the spokesperson told AFP in an email sent on June 16. 

"Purporting to be 'news' may make it less obvious and able to avoid quick detection."

The Daily Telegraph has debunked the same fake ABC News story, while the Australian Associated Press wrote about a similar situation in March where a fake ABC News site was promoting an investment platform called Momentum Finspire (archived here and here).