Deepfake and fake celebrity endorsement scams

• Trust in the person is real and was earned elsewhere. The fraud only has to borrow it.
• Faces and voices used to be evidence. They can now be produced to order.
• The surrounding page copies a trusted news brand, with comments from “readers” who say it worked.
• It appears as an advertisement on a platform people use daily, which seems to vouch for it.

• A public figure recommending a particular investment platform, with a link, in an advertisement.
• A story about a secret, a leak, a loophole, or something “they” do not want known.
• A web address that is not the news outlet’s own, however alike the page looks.
• No trace of the statement on the person’s own official channels or in any other report.
• A form that asks only for contact details, followed by a telephone call.
• Slight oddities of lip movement, blinking, lighting or rhythm of speech. These are becoming rarer, and their absence proves nothing.

One sign alone proves nothing, and a fraud may show none of them at first. The Check this offer list puts fourteen such questions side by side.

• Reporting the advertisement to the platform that showed it is separate from reporting the fraud to the authorities, and both are worth doing: the first may stop others seeing it.

1. 01Stop paying. Send nothing more, whatever the reason given: a tax, a fee, a deposit to “unlock” the account, a charge to recover what was lost. A further payment is the usual next step of the fraud.
2. 02Stop the conversation. There is no need to explain, argue or warn. Do not delete it, either: it is a record.
3. 03Keep records. Messages, names and numbers used, the addresses of websites, payment receipts, account and wallet details, screenshots of anything that might disappear. Note the dates.
4. 04Tell your bank or payment provider at once. Use a number you find yourself, on a card or a statement, not one from a message. Say it is fraud. Time matters, and they will say what they can and cannot do.
5. 05Report it to the authority in your country. That is usually the police or a national fraud-reporting service, and the financial regulator. A report helps others even where it does not help you.
6. 06Secure what was shared. Change passwords that were given out or reused, remove any remote-access software that was installed, and tell the provider of any account or card whose details were passed on.
7. 07Expect a second approach. People who have lost money are contacted again, by “recovery agents”, “lawyers” and “officials” who ask for a fee first. See the page on recovery-room fraud.
8. 08Tell someone you trust. These frauds are built by people who do it for a living, and they work on careful, intelligent people. Silence helps only the fraudster.

Nobody can promise that money lost to fraud will come back. Sometimes some of it does; often it does not. Anyone who guarantees a recovery, or asks to be paid first, is describing another fraud.

Regulators publish free warning lists and registers of authorised firms; this site lists several under Nice & Need: stay safe. To check an address that claims to be this site, use Verify a GIO4X link.

How can I tell whether a video is a deepfake?

Often you cannot, by looking. Flaws in lips, eyes and voice are becoming harder to see. What stays checkable is the context: whether the statement appears on the person’s own official channels, whether any established outlet reports it, and what the offer itself is asking you to do.

Do celebrities really endorse trading platforms?

Paid sponsorships exist, and are announced by both sides through their own official channels. A “leaked secret” in an advertisement, leading to a form and a telephone call, is not how any genuine endorsement is made.

Can a voice on the telephone be faked as well?

Yes. A voice can be cloned from a short recording, so a call that sounds like a known person, a manager or a relative is no longer proof of who is speaking. Ringing back on a number already known is the old check, and it still works.