Deception through deepfakes: Understanding and Avoiding These Sophisticated Hoaxes
Going Down a Deepfake Rabbit Hole: How Scammers Fool Us on Social Media
Ever wondered if you should trust an investment tip from Martin Wolf, the FT's veteran chief economics commentator? His sharp analysis graces many legit financial videos on the FT's social media outlets, but scammers have churned out a slew of convincing deepfake videos on Instagram, where he seems to be dishing out stock advice.
One of these fake ads shows a manipulated Wolf encouraging people to join his "exclusive WhatsApp investment group." But don't let the convincing façade fool you, Meta, the owner of WhatsApp and Instagram, has removed such ads. Despite this, deepfake scams are quickly going mainstream, so you better keep your eyes open.
What's Driving the Deepfake Scams?It all boils down to the surging generative AI technology. The tools needed to create synthetic videos and images are becoming cheaper, easier to access, and simpler for scammers to manipulate, peddling convincing-looking content.
Deepfakes of celebrities like Taylor Swift, Elon Musk, and even the stars of Dragons' Den have been employed for all sorts of scams, promoting everything from kitchenware to crypto scams and diet pills. Last year, a British man drained his wallet of £76,000 due to a deepfake scam featuring Martin Lewis, the founder of Money Saving Expert.
Now, scammers have one major advantage, says Nick Stapleton, presenter of the award-winning BBC series Scam Interceptors and author of How to Beat Scammers. "Deepfakes are working wonders for the scammers since many social media users are ignorant about generative AI's capabilities when it comes to fake impersonation videos," he explains. "They believe a video like Martin Wolf's deepfake is real because they lack the necessary information to question its authenticity."
Lewis, who claims the "weird accolade" of being the most-scammed face in Britain, recently sounded the alarm about deepfake adverts on ITV's Good Morning Britain. "I wouldn't trust an advert with a celebrity if you've only seen it on social media if it's about investment, dieting, or any of the scam areas," he warned. "If it's got me in it, it's a fake. Anything that rushes you to make money... it's bullshit, don't trust it."
What Forms Can Deepfake Videos Take?Celebrities aren't the only ones at risk. Deepfakes are increasingly used to impersonate senior staff at corporate organizations. Last year, UK engineering firm Arup lost a whopping $25mn when a staff member in Hong Kong was swayed into making 15 bank transfers after scammers digitally cloned the company's chief financial officer on a video conference call.
Online influencers with their faces plastered across social media platforms are particularly vulnerable, as the more content an individual provides to train the AI, the more authentic the copycat Deepfakes can be.
As technology progresses, deepfake videos have the potential to make romance scams even more convincing, and could potentially be used to manipulate images of friends and family members seeking financial assistance.
What More Should Social Media Platforms Do?While social media platforms claim to use facial recognition to spot and remove fake ads, they often go unnoticed long enough to gain traction. "How is it possible that a giant company like Meta, equipped with immense resources, AI tools, and a veritable army of engineers, cannot identify and take down such frauds automatically?" wonders Martin Wolf himself.
Meta responded, "It's against our policies to impersonate public figures, and we have removed and disabled the ads, accounts, and pages reported to us. Scammers are persistent, and they constantly evolve their tactics to evade detection, so we're constantly refining our methods to make it more difficult for them to deceive others."
Despite this, Stapleton suggests investing more of their profits in better vetting and moderation of general posts to make these deepfake scams less of an issue quickly. This might seem like a radical proposition, but given the growing threat of deepfake scams, it's an idea worth considering.
Under the UK's new Online Safety Act, tech companies will soon be held accountable for setting performance targets to remove illegal material promptly and testing algorithms to make illegal content harder to disseminate.
How Can You Spot a Deepfake?Stapleton's main tip for spotting deepfakes is to scrutinize the mouth of the person supposedly speaking: are the shapes of the words correct? Next, look at their skin: does it appear flat with no definition or wrinkles? And examine their eyes: do they blink normally, or are they more robotic in their movements?
Finally, listen to the tone of their voice. "AI struggles with the range of human voices," he says. "Deepfakes will tend to sound robotic, flat, and lacking in emotion." The deepfake video of the FT's Wolf might have sounded strange, but given that many people watch videos on mute, the scammers gain an additional advantage.
Lastly, be wary of advertisements on social media. "If you can't find the information reported anywhere else, it's almost certainly fake," warns Stapleton.
What to Do if You've Been Impersonated OnlineReport the scam to the social media outlet using their reporting tools. Also, inform your friends and followers about the fake account to prevent them from getting misled. If you've been a victim of this deepfake scam or continue to see the deepfake video of Martin Wolf on social media platforms, please share your experience with the FT at their website. Stay vigilant!
- The surging generative AI technology is driving the proliferation of deepfake scams, making it easier and cheaper for scammers to create synthetic videos and images.
- Scammers are increasingly impersonating senior staff at corporate organizations, such as Arup's chief financial officer, to defraud companies out of millions.
- Online influencers, with their faces widely distributed across social media platforms, are particularly vulnerable to deepfake impersonations due to the abundance of material available for AI training.
- Deepfakes have the potential to make romance scams more convincing and could be used to manipulate images of friends and family members seeking financial assistance.
- Social media platforms could invest more of their profits in better vetting and moderation of general posts to minimize the occurrence of deepfake scams.
- To spot a deepfake, scrutinize the person's mouth and skin, examine their eyes for normal blinking patterns, listen for a robotic or flat voice tone, and verify information from other sources before trusting it, especially in investment, diet, or scam-related advertisements on social media.
