Lisbon, Sept. 11, 2025 (Lusa Verifica) - Several fake videos of Luís Montenegro, Mário Centeno and Paulo Macedo, among other public figures, are circulating on social media to promote scams linked to supposed trading platforms that promise millionaire profits to those who invest €250.
+++ Claim: Luís Montenegro tested and promoted a platform that allows
+++ you to earn up to €20,000 or €30,000 a month +++
Since the beginning of the month, adverts have been circulating on Facebook promoting “a simple, fast and 100% safe way” to “earn up to €1,000 a day” with just a €250 investment. One of the advertisements is accompanied by a video featuring journalists Joaquim Sousa Martins and Sandra Felgueiras, who announce that "Luís Montenegro has spoken publicly in favour of a new financial platform that could change the lives of thousands of Portuguese" (https://archive.ph/9nKLa).
According to the anchor, “a single investment of just €250 can generate up to €20,000 a month”, information reiterated in the following 4 minutes of an alleged speech by the Prime Minister in front of a backdrop with the PSD logo and the slogan “Acreditar” and a footer similar to CNN's, which reads that “anyone can earn up to €700 a day”.
Underneath the video is a link to a page that appears to be from O Jornal Económico and which reports on “an innovative product to improve the lives of all Portuguese people”, called "Immediate Growth", “a high-tech trading automation platform that will allow you to earn €30,000 a month”."
It is, the text explains, “a cutting-edge project, the result of years of research and development, created in collaboration with Cristiano Ronaldo” and which 'combines the latest advances in artificial intelligence and machine learning with an intuitive interface, so that anyone can earn a daily income of €1,000.
The article includes a 10-second video featuring Cristiano Ronaldo, who appears in a Brazilian accent, explaining that the project works exactly as described and that on the first day, he managed to "double the money" he invested.
It also includes an alleged publication by Luís Montenegro explaining that he is “creating this platform to help ordinary Portuguese citizens improve their financial situation”, a “development that will generate passive income of €50,000 per month”.
There is also an advert with the Prime Minister's image and the indication that investments of €250 can generate up to €12,500 in four weeks, and at the bottom of the page, there is a registration form for later telephone contact.
At the same time, another advert is circulating about an alleged "SIC Notícias investigation" illustrated with a statement by Mário Centeno, former Governor of the Bank of Portugal, in which he "revealed a platform that silently paid the elite" and for this reason "he was removed from the leadership of the Bank of Portugal." (https://archive.ph/YEnP3) In the video, which lasts more than three minutes, Centeno explains why he decided to "reveal a truth that had been hidden for decades", namely "a new generation financial platform, based on artificial intelligence", which "generated tens of thousands of euros a month for politicians, civil servants and people close to power, silently, without fanfare, without risk."
Like Luís Montenegro's video, Centeno says that he decided to "test everything personally" and that he carried out "an independent investigation together with journalists from SIC Notícias", the station whose logo appears in the top right corner of the video.
"I registered on the platform, invested €250 out of my own pocket just to make sure it wasn't a fake. And here's the result: a few hours later, my balance already showed €740, after three days, €2120 and at the end of the month, tens of thousands, automatically, without my intervention."
Centeno says that "the platform is completely legal, it operates with an official licence and the money can be withdrawn at any time", but it is only "temporarily open to the public, but not for long" because "the regulatory authorities are already preparing to close it down."
"You have to act now. If you're listening to this, you still have a chance. Fill in the form and, above all, pick up the phone when the specialist calls you. Miss the call and everything disappears. Access will be closed. There may not be a second chance. They removed me to stop you knowing the truth. But now it's in front of you and only you can decide whether to stay out or enter a system that has been hidden from you all your life," he says.
In the Facebook post with the video, there is a link to a page that appears to be from SIC Notícias, where Centeno's image reappears. It is explained that it is Nebulito Portoflix, "an online trading platform that uses advanced artificial intelligence algorithms to find and make the most profitable trades on the stock market."
There is also a video of CNN journalist João Póvoa Marinheiro explaining the workings of a platform with a different name. The text assures that "the project can be considered 100% reliable, as it has obtained a licence from the government, which means that the National Bank of Portugal insures all deposits." At the bottom of the page is a form for "free registration".
+++ Facts: Both adverts are scams for cryptocurrency buying and selling
+++ platforms +++
It doesn't take much effort to realise that the adverts are hoaxes, given that they have minor flaws and that none of these figures would do this kind of advertising, and to suspect that the videos have been faked with the help of Artificial Intelligence (AI), which isn't even new: Luís Montenegro, Cristiano Ronaldo and Mário Centeno and others have already been victims of similar scams, as the newspaper Polygraph has revealed: https://archive.ph/OTBgP, https://archive.ph/RyBXP and https://archive.ph/WUhbE (examples).
In this case, through reverse searches of some of the frames, it can be seen that Luís Montenegro's video is the result of the manipulation of real images from two different moments: the beginning, with CNN anchors Joaquim Sousa Martins and Sandra Felgueiras, uses an excerpt from the launch of the exclusive interview with Luís Filipe Vieira, broadcast on CNN on 19 August (https://archive.is/6l9RJ).
The images of Luís Montenegro were taken from the video of the presentation of his candidacy for the leadership of the PSD, which took place in April 2022 (https://archive.is/g1nYp). In both cases, the images were only manipulated to synchronise the lips of those targeted with the new fake audios generated by AI with similar voices, while maintaining the original expressions and gestures.
Another important indicator is the page where the advert appears (https://archive.is/i2Cg9), allegedly from the USA, with profile pictures clearly fabricated by AI. A review of Meta's ad library, the owner of Facebook, reveals that it is promoting similar ads on various networks, including Instagram and Messenger. However, some have been removed for violating advertising regulations: https://www.facebook.com/ads/library/?active_status=all&ad_type=all&country=ALL&is_targeted_country=false&media_type=all&search_type=page&source=page-transparency-widget&view_all_page_id=103307425166670.
If these indicators weren't enough, analysing the supposed page of O Jornal Económico and the alleged news about the “Immediate Growth” project shows that it's a hoax, since the URL “drovexasolutions” doesn't correspond to the real one at https://jornaleconomico.sapo.pt. None of the external links work (it wasn't possible to archive this fake page on the archive sites).
In the case of the video of Mário Centeno, the hoaxer used the manipulation of a LUSA video about the press conference to present the June Economic Bulletin, when Centeno was still governor of the Bank of Portugal (https://archive.ph/8LVkM).
In this case, too, the page publishing the advert raises suspicions, given that it only has 12 followers and only publishes content about nature (https://archive.ph/LzQ9k). A review of the transparency menu also reveals that it promotes more than two dozen similar ads on various Meta networks, some of which have already been removed for violating the rules: https://www.facebook.com/ads/library/?active_status=all&ad_type=all&country=ALL&is_targeted_country=false&media_type=all&search_type=page&source=page-transparency-widget&view_all_page_id=270892906114232.
As in the previous case, when you click on the “link” under the advert, you can easily detect that neither the URL of the destination page (karlomexis) nor the content corresponds to the real SIC Notícias page, available at https://sicnoticias.pt/ (it was not possible to archive the fake page).
In addition to these two cases, it was possible to identify two more recent deepfakes targeting Paulo Macedo, CEO of Caixa Geral de Depósitos, and Pedro Andersson, a SIC journalist who is a regular target of this type of manipulation. It was not possible to locate these two videos active in adverts. Still, Lusa Verifica has detected a YouTube page, with no apparent connection to the scams, which compiles these and other deepfakes: https://archive.ph/cKvP4.
As already mentioned, these cases are not unprecedented. In 2024, within the scope of a cooperation protocol established between MediaLab CIES Iscte and the National Electoral Commission, for monitoring and screening political disinformation in the context of the pre-campaign and electoral campaign for the European elections on 9 June, what appears to be "the first “deepfake” video involving a Portuguese political actor" was detected.
In this case, the target was André Ventura, also using a real video manipulated with an audio recording generated by AI, in which the CHEGA politician supposedly recommends that users invest in the easy money scheme, as recorded in the report on this project, published by OberCom - Observatório da Comunicação as part of its work as a member of IBERIFIER (Iberian Digital Media Observatory of Portugal and Spain): https://archive.ph/uTX3W (page 47).
The problem was also noted in IBERIFIER's latest quarterly report, namely due to some of the cases already pointed out: https://archive.ph/4QfvA and https://archive.ph/JtsKy.
In addition to “deepfake” videos, other types of adverts often appear using public figures, as warned by Polygraph (https://archive.ph/cQVqp) and the CpC Initiative: Citizens for Cybersecurity: https://archive.ph/IYiQ2. This scenario also occurs in other countries and is frequently denounced by fact-checkers (https://archive.ph/rHnIh).
Given the complexity of these scams, it has not yet been possible to identify the author or authors behind these frauds and deepfakes. Still, Lusa Verifica will continue to monitor the issue.
+++ Lusa Verifica assessment: False +++
It is false that Luís Montenegro, Mário Centeno, Cristiano Ronaldo, Paulo Macedo, Pedro Andersson and other public figures have created, tested or recommend investing in applications or platforms for buying and selling crypto-assets. The videos and adverts circulating on social media are AI manipulations, with apparently real images but fake audio and links to fake "news".
LYGA/ADB // ADB.
Lusa
