To trick you, scammers need to earn your trust first. What better way than by posing as a popular celebrity? Recently, BBB Scam Tracker has received numerous reports involving products supposedly endorsed by well-known and trusted celebrities. With the rise in deepfake scams and ever-improving AI technology, these phony endorsements are more convincing than ever.
Here is 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! The social media account may even appear to belong to the celebrity.
For example, one consumer shared that they purchased keto gummy bear supplements after coming across a fake endorsement from Oprah Winfrey. The ad used Oprah’s image and had her promote the product while also offering a buy-one-get-one-free promotion for first-time buyers. The consumer clicked on the link and ordered the product, but the following day received an email confirming that their order had been processed for $198. The company refused to issue a refund and shipped the product regardless. Upon receiving the package, the consumer found the gummies were from a company that had no affiliation with Oprah Winfrey.
Before you make a purchase on social media, take a minute to reexamine the post and the account that posted it. The photos and videos could very well be 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 do you spot fake celebrity scams? 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. 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 that they came from an official source. Just because something is shared widely on social media does not mean it’s real. For instance, an AI-generated photo of Pope Francis in a designer puffer jacket recently went viral, as well as a deepfake video of Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy telling his soldiers to surrender was also widely circulated on social media. Always do your due diligence before you purchase or reshare something you saw on social media.
Only do business with companies you know and trust. If you want to purchase a product or donate, do so through a reputable business or non-profit. If you want to buy something from a company you aren’t familiar with, do plenty of research first. Look up the company name, website, and contact information. Read reviews on BBB.org and do a general search with the company’s name and the word “scam.”
For more about scams, go to BBB.org/ScamTips. If you have been scammed or targeted for a scam, help us warn others by filing a report at BBB.org/ScamTracker.
Reghan Winkler is executive director of the Better Business Bureau serving West Central Ohio. The BBB may be found on the Internet at bbb.org/us/oh/lima.
