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Frank on Fraud

Scammers Are Perfecting Romance Scam Deepfakes

If someone won’t video call or hop on FaceTime with you it is a pretty good indicator that you might be getting Catfished.

Well that used to be the case.

But that key red flag may no longer be the case as Nigerian Scammers seem to have figured out a way to deepfake those video calls to you.

Scammers Are Selling Tutorials On Twitter To DeepFake Video Calls

I found this interesting Twitter user that likes to show how easy it is to scam victims and cash out quickly.

Check this example posted by Michael Maxi on how this victim has no idea how they are being scammed. ?

And that isn’t the only example. Here is another. In this example, the scammer is laughing as he exclaims “you look beautiful” to the elderly victim he is video calling with.

And in this post, they show you in depth how this deepfake works in realtime. The scammer moves their head, changes expressions and talks and the deepfake works instantly.

And if your a male scammer trying to pretend to be a woman, that isn’t a problem. They can actually show you how to deepfake a woman so you can romance scammer a male victim.

Check out this pretty convincing video where the scammer is pretending to be a woman that is promising to come to Canada to meet her victim (Ricardo). Sadly he may have fallen for this scam.

The Scammers Appear To Be Perfecting The Use Of DeepFake Photos

It appears that these scammers are using apps that can deepfake video using still photos.

There are lots of talking photo apps freely available to anyone with an internet connection. And they often provide just enough capability for a scammer to use to fool a victim.

Scammers can upload a photo, and the application will animate it and create a video which can be downloaded.

The scammer will then do a screenshare with the victim and then talk as the video moves.

It sounds basic, but it many cases it does work.

Ask The Scammer To Wave Their Hand In Front Of Their Face

If you suspect that you are being targeted by a romance scammer using these tricks there are two simple things you can do.

#1 – Ask Them To Stand Up And Move Around

These deepfake live photos will glitch during movement. The scammer cannot change positions beyond moving their head because they are working with still photos.

#2 – Ask Them To Wave Their Hand In Front Of Their Face

If you ask the scammer that is deepfaking a live photo to run a finger across their face or move their hands in front of their face it will glitch the video and you will instantly be able to tell it is fake.

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