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ZeroHedge posted the following:
June 18, 2026
Fraud is entering a new era. Businesses across North America expect fraud trends like biometric fraud, deepfake scams, and synthetic identities to become more common in 2026 as criminals adopt faster and more sophisticated tools.
This visualization, created by Visual Capitalist’s Julia Wendling, in partnership with Inigo for the Fraud in Data campaign’s sixth post, uses data from the Sumsub Fraud Report 2025 to explore the fraud trends businesses believe will shape the future of digital risk. …
Surveyed businesses expect biometric fraud to rise the most, with 67% predicting an increase. As companies rely more on facial recognition, voice authentication, and remote onboarding, fraudsters are finding new ways to exploit those systems. …
Deepfake technology is already making identity verification harder. In the future, AI-generated videos, cloned voices, and stolen biometric data could make fraud attempts more convincing and more scalable than ever before.
Businesses also expect synthetic identity fraud to grow, with 56% anticipating a rise. Criminals are increasingly combining real and fake information to create identities that can bypass traditional fraud checks. …
Businesses expect fraud attacks to become more automated in 2026. Around 44% predict increases in advanced AI-driven attacks, deepfake scams, and forged identity documents.
Another 33% expect AI-generated fake profiles to rise as fraudsters use generative AI tools to impersonate real users online. These scams could become faster to produce and harder to detect across financial services, ecommerce, and digital platforms. …
Data breaches are expected to remain a major source of fraud risk. About 33% of businesses anticipate more identity theft linked to stolen personal data. https://www.zerohedge.com/technology/8-frightening-forecasts-future-fraud
This is not a surprise.
The Apostle Paul warned:
1 But know this, that in the last days perilous times will come: 2 For men will be lovers of themselves, lovers of money, boasters, proud, blasphemers, disobedient to parents, unthankful, unholy, 3 unloving, unforgiving, slanderers, without self-control, brutal, despisers of good, 4 traitors, headstrong, haughty, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God, .. 13 … evil men and impostors will grow worse and worse, deceiving and being deceived. (2 Timothy 3:1-4,13)
Having deepfakes and other frauds are consistent with that prophecy.
The use of such deepfakes is wrong–but not surprising in this age–plus the idea of fakes is warned of in scripture.
In the first century, the Apostle Paul wrote:
1 Now, brethren, concerning the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ and our gathering together to Him, we ask you, 2 not to be soon shaken in mind or troubled, either by spirit or by word or by letter, as if from us, as though the day of Christ had come. (2 Thessalonians 2:1-2, NKJV)
Apparently, the Apostle Paul had to deal with some who faked a letter claiming it was from him as well as reports he said things he did not say. So, he warned Christians about that.
But that, of course, did not stop the fakes.
Various false gospels came out in the 2nd century (for some details, see also Who Gave the World the Bible? The Canon: Why do we have the books we now do in the Bible? Is the Bible complete?).
In the late 2nd/early 3rd century, a Church of God leader known as Serapion of Antioch used the term pseudepigrapha to warn against something falsely called the Gospel of Peter (Peter did not write it; for more details, see also Who Gave the World the Bible? The Canon: Why do we have the books we now do in the Bible? Is the Bible complete?).
We have warned about the emergence of deepfakes for some time now. Back in 2021, the Continuing Church of God (CCOG) put out the following video on our Bible News Prophecy YouTube channel:
13:27
Lies and Deepfakes
Jesus taught that God’s prophets would be reviled and spoken evil of. He also warned that the devil was a liar that worked to take the word of God away from those who heard it. The Apostle Paul warned that “evil men and seducers would wax worse and worse, deceiving and being deceived” (2 Timothy 3:13, KJV). He also warned that letters purported from him with false messages were an issue. COG leader Serapion of Antioch denounced a gospel falsely attributed to the Apostle Peter as pseudepigrapha. With the internet, lies can spread faster than before. With technology, like artificial intelligence, can we expect to see deepfakes that will make it look like Christian leaders say or do things that they did not? Do you, “prove all things” so you will not fall from the coming increased deceit? Will YOU hold fast to that which is good or be one who “loves and practices a lie’? Dr. Thiel refers to aspects of modern technology and various scriptures to warn Christians to not be misled by what is coming.
Here is a link to the video: Lies and Deepfakes.
Scammers have already attempted to use a deep fake to pretend to be me contacting others over Facebook in December 2023 (see No, Bob Thiel does not have a new Facebook page–the deepfake is not me) as well as in 2024. That said, I learned later that type of fake solicitation is called “catfishing.” But, it is still a lie.
But fakes are often accurate enough that many accept them. AI programs will make it harder and harder to tell the true from the false.
In the past, I was presented with what I considered to be a “deepfake” computer-conversation that I was able to determine could not have happened as it was presented to myself and others. Sadly, however, some preferred to believe the lie.
The Bible warns against:
15 … whoever loves and practices a lie. (Revelation 22:15)
With modern technology, highly persuasive deceit is possible–and to a degree impossible in Paul’s, and later Serapion’s, day. But Paul warned Christians to have assurance in true biblical teachers.
The Apostle Paul also taught:
21 Prove all things; hold fast that which is good. (1 Thessalonians 5:21, KJV)
Once you have proven the truth, you need to hold fast to it so you will not be deceived like others. Or tossed to and fro by every wind purporting to be true, “that we should no longer be children, tossed to and fro and carried about with every wind of doctrine, by the trickery of men, in the cunning craftiness of deceitful plotting” (Ephesians 4:14, NKJV).
Every now and then, I find that there has been another pretending to be me on the internet.
The Apostle Paul warned about those who were “slanderers” in the last days, and that certainly would include those who produce deepfakes as well as those who slander church leaders (notice, for example, Banned from the truth and painful lies: Anti-COG sites put out false statements to slander Bob Thiel).
That being said, the coming European Beast power would likely state that part of the reason, for what the Bible calls the mark of the Beast, will be to protect against fraud.
Notice the following:
16 He causes all, both small and great, rich and poor, free and slave, to receive a mark on their right hand or on their foreheads, 17 and that no one may buy or sell except one who has the mark or the name of the beast, or the number of his name.
18 Here is wisdom. Let him who has understanding calculate the number of the beast, for it is the number of a man: His number is 666. (Revelation 13:16-18)
Some items of possibly related interest may include:
The Mark of Antichrist What is the mark of Antichrist? What have various ones claimed? Here is a link to a related sermon What is the ‘Mark of Antichrist’?
Mark of the Beast What is the mark of the Beast? Who is the Beast? What have various ones claimed the mark is? What is the ‘Mark of the Beast’?
Europa, the Beast, and Revelation Where did Europe get its name? What might Europe have to do with the Book of Revelation? What about “the Beast”? Is an emerging European power “the daughter of Babylon”? What is ahead for Europe? Here is are links to related videos: European history and the Bible, Europe In Prophecy, The End of European Babylon, and Can You Prove that the Beast to Come is European? Here is a link to a related sermon in the Spanish language: El Fin de la Babilonia Europea.
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