The National Bank of Romania issued an alert about a new deepfake-enabled financial fraud campaign circulating online that uses the image of Governor Mugur Isarescu to promote a false investment opportunity and induce the public to deposit money into a fake scheme and disclose personal data. The fraudulent video content claims a supposed partnership with Florin Talpes, Chief Executive Officer of Bitdefender, and promotes an artificial intelligence-based “investment system”. Bitdefender reported that advertisements redirect users to romania-investition.info, where the fake “Profit Gold Românesc” application is presented via a landing page designed to mimic an official financial platform, and noted that the site is blocked as fraudulent. The central bank reiterated that it does not make investment recommendations or proposals and said its official online communications are only via bnr.ro and its institutional social media accounts on LinkedIn, X, Instagram, Bluesky and YouTube. It advised anyone who has interacted with such materials or sites not to provide personal data and to report the situation to the competent authorities.
National Bank of Romania 2026-02-27
National Bank of Romania warns of deepfake investment scam using Governor Mugur Isarescu’s image
The National Bank of Romania alerted about a deepfake-enabled fraud using Governor Mugur Isarescu's image to promote a fake investment scheme. The campaign falsely claims a partnership with Florin Talpes of Bitdefender and directs users to the fraudulent site romania-investition.info. The central bank emphasized it does not make investment recommendations and urged the public to report interactions with such materials to authorities.