To trick you, scammers need to earn your trust first. What better way than by posing as a popular celebrity?
BBB Scam Tracker has recently received numerous reports involving products supposedly endorsed by well-known and trusted celebrities. With the rise in deepfake scams and ever-improving artificial intelligence technology, these phony endorsements are more convincing than ever.
How the scam works
You see a post on social media of a celebrity endorsing a weight-loss product, health supplement or another product. In the post, photos show the celebrity using the product, or a video features their voice talking about the amazing results they’ve seen. It sounds too good to be true, but the photos and video look so real. Also, the social media account appears to belong to the celebrity.
Before you make a purchase, take a minute to re-examine the post and social media account. The photos and videos are most likely fake. If you make a purchase, you’ll lose money – often more than you expected – on a product that is substandard or doesn’t exist.
How to prevent the scam
The following tips will help you avoid getting scammed.
• Get familiar with deepfake technology. Scammers use deepfake technology to trick people. They take real video clips and photos of a person and use them to create new videos and audio clips. Deepfake images and videos can be surprisingly realistic.
• Understand how AI-generated images work. With AI image generators, you can type in a few words describing the image you want to be created, and the AI generates an image based on your text. It’s valuable technology, but scammers can abuse it to create images to back up their stories, products or outright lies. The point? Don’t assume a photo is proof that something is trustworthy.
• Know that scammers often impersonate celebrities. Don’t assume celebrity posts, images or videos are legitimate until you verify they came from an official source. Just because something is shared widely on social media does not mean it’s real. Always do your due diligence before you purchase or reshare something you saw on social media.
If you’ve been the victim of a scam, report it to BBB Scam Tracker at tinyurl.com/w3pbcur8.
