Lesson 112 · 2 min
Deepfake video calls
A short, blurry video call where a friend's face asks to borrow money can be a live AI fake, so seeing the face is no longer enough.
Scammers take over a social or chat account, then video call that person's friends. Using photos and clips from the account, AI puts the friend's face over the scammer's face in real time.
These calls are short on purpose. The picture is dark or jumpy, the sound cuts out, and after a few seconds the caller says the connection is bad and switches to text to ask for money.
Ask the caller to do something a fake struggles with: turn their head fully to the side, wave a hand slowly in front of the face, or answer a question only they would know. Glitches around the edges of the face are a warning sign, though a good fake may pass.
The safest rule needs no detective work. Money requests from a call are checked by calling the person back on their usual phone number, outside the app that contacted you.
Do it now
Practise the call-back rule
- 1. Pick three friends or relatives you would lend money to.
- 2. Check that you have their real phone number saved, not only their chat account.
- 3. Agree with them: any money request on chat or video gets a phone call back before anyone pays.
Quick check
Keep going
Next →Fake celebrity endorsementsWords from this lesson
- Deepfake
- A fake video, photo or audio clip made with AI to show a real person saying or doing something they never did.
- Computer vision
- AI that makes sense of images and video, such as reading signs, spotting faces or checking products on a factory line.
- Phishing
- Fake messages that pretend to be someone you trust to trick you into clicking a link, paying or sharing passwords.