TikTok scammers using AI to deepfake celebrities like Taylor Swift
If you’re on TikTok and you suddenly see a video ad of a celebrity pop up telling you about new ways to earn money, there’s a good chance that it’s a scammer trying to steal your money.
Copyleaks, a New York-based authentication platform, has revealed that they’ve found many TikTok ads showing celebrities speaking in interviews such as on talk shows or podcasts. These ads have been edited with AI, trying to depict the celebrity promoting some new rewards program, typically about how you can earn money by watching content and giving feedback. They also tend to have a lot of stylistic filters around it to hide the flaws that come with AI generated visuals.
These videos will have these deepfaked celebrities such as Rihanna or Taylor Swift tell you to try these new features, and often times have real TikTok branding on them too. Clicking the ad however will then redirect you to a third party website, and will try to get you to provide your login details or personal information.
Taylor Swift has already taken action, recently filing trademarks for her voice and image following concerns about AI misuse. Another celebrity, actor Matthew McConaughey, has also filed to trademark his catchphrase ‘All right, all right, all right’ earlier this year, again due to AI misuse.
If you’re seeing such videos appear on your timeline, there are a few things to look out for to check if it’s deepfaked content. Look out for unnatural physical details especially in motion, and listen for audio mismatches with their lips or if it just sounds robotic. Inconsistent lighting or context is another common AI flaw, which is why scammers tend to use filters to hide it. The best way of course is to verify it yourself, and if in doubt stay away from it altogether.
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