Keanu Reeves has a storied reputation for being a nice guy. But for some people, that reputation has been upset by scammers using his likeness to con them out of money.

Reeves is one of several celebrities whose likeness is being used in deepfakes – AI-generated media that shows a person’s likeness doing and saying things they have never done or said – that are increasingly employed by scammers to defraud real victims. But now, that likeness is being used in a new online series from HomeEquity Bank that details some of the ways that scammers are using the medium to take advantage of unsuspecting people.

The series, called “Unmask the Scam,” is a follow-up to the bank’s previous work with reformed con man Frank Abagnale. Once again aimed at a particularly vulnerable group in retirees – HomeEquity’s client base heavily skews toward that demographic – the goal is, once again, to educate. In a series of three, roughly minute-long videos, three common forms of scam are revealed by a deepfaked Keanu Reeves, who outlines the way the scams are executed and what people can do to protect themselves.

The first of the scams targeted by the series is the romance scam, in which scammers use a deepfake of celebrities to convince people to give them money. The scams are so common that they even hit close to HomeEquity.

“I was targeted by a romance scammer pretending to be an A-list celebrity,” says Vivianne Gauci, HomeEquity Bank’s SVP of customer experience and chief marketing officer. “I knew all the signs so I didn’t fall for the scam, but I still can’t get over how real it looked. Understanding that retired Canadians feel more vulnerable to scams, I knew HomeEquity Bank had a responsibility to help fight this new kind of fraud.”

In fact, romance scams in particular are responsible for the second highest amount of fraud-related dollar loss in Canada last year. According to the Canadian Anti-Fraud Centre, 1,056 victims reported being defrauded out of $59 million.

The other videos in the series also employ the deepfake Keanu to outline other forms of scam that are commonly targeting older people: the tech support scam, in which popups or phone calls from fake support companies offer assistance and then steal valuable data from a person’s devices; and the real estate scam, in which scammers are stealing homeowners’ identities to sell their residences.

“Scammers are becoming more sophisticated and brazen by the day, so it’s critical to combat their scam operations through education,” says Brian Murray, CCO at Zulu Alpha Kilo, which developed the series with HomeEquity. “Blurring the lines between what’s real and what’s not allowed us to turn that education into entertainment and, ultimately, to beat the scammers at their own game.”

Digital media for the campaign will run until the end of April, while its social reach will span until the 7th. Editorial and earned activity will run through to the end of March, which is Fraud Prevention Month. Zulubot handled production for the campaign, while iQuanti handled the digital media buy and Weber Shandwick is overseeing PR. The series can be viewed in full at its microsite.