Harrogate District Chamber of Commerce AI media incident
The Harrogate District Chamber of Commerce President revealed that a deepfake video of himself was shown at an October 2024 event to solicit fraudulent bank.
- Incident date
- Oct 12, 2024
- Source report date
- Oct 28, 2026
- Target
- Harrogate District Chamber of Commerce
During an event held at Rudding Park on October 12, 2024, attendees were presented with a video featuring the Harrogate District Chamber of Commerce President. The video, which was a sophisticated deepfake, featured the President requesting that members change the organization's bank details before the digital avatar began singing a local folk song.
What happened
The incident served as a practical demonstration of the risks posed by synthetic media. The deepfake was designed to appear as a legitimate communication from the Chamber President, Phill Holdsworth, utilizing his likeness to authorize a change in payment information. The deception was revealed by the President himself, who clarified that he would never request payment changes via video and noted that his actual singing voice is significantly worse than that of the digital recreation. The Chamber used the incident to highlight the importance of verifying communication channels and establishing internal protocols, such as using code words, to prevent falling victim to social engineering scams during busy business periods.