Lawyer Aresvir Marín, a fraud prevention specialist, has warned about the growth of cyber fraud schemes that use artificial intelligence to create false advertisements featuring public figures such as journalist Carmen Aristegui, journalist Jorge Ramos, former President Andrés Manuel López Obrador, businessmen Carlos Slim and Arturo Elías Ayub, with the aim of inducing people to make investments.
During an interview on "Aristegui en Vivo", he explained that these materials have reached an increasingly high level of sophistication. "Imagine a victim being criminally prosecuted," he said.
He announced that the newly appointed prosecutor for Relevant Matters of the Attorney General's Office (FGR), Ulises Lara, is working on a proposal to address this phenomenon from a federal level, given its national nature.
The lawyer explained that victims usually provide copies of their official ID, proof of address, and even photos holding their INE (National ID). He clarified that these actions are not limited to a single state, as the videos are disseminated nationwide, giving them a federal impact.
He specified that this crime provides for penalties of "one to eight years in prison" and there is an aggravating factor when a person's voice or image is used or imitated for illicit purposes, in which case "half the years" will be added to the sentence.
Regarding the possibility of taking legal action, Marín confirmed that affected persons can report identity theft against "whoever is found responsible".
He added that there are other equally serious crimes and recalled that they recently secured a significant conviction. "We already have a conviction we achieved less than a month ago, a conviction of nearly seven years in prison for a fraudster," he said, while explaining that one of the involved individuals managed to escape and investigations continue to identify more people linked to these networks.
The lawyer highlighted that achieving a sentence of this kind is not easy, and in some cases, the victims themselves agree to give public testimony. The affected parties end up selling property or going into debt through loans.
He concluded that, in this context, those who seek to improve their quality of life are not to blame, but he called for being alert to possible scams. "I'm watching this video, and they get more detailed every time. It's incredible."
