🕵️ The increasing difficulty of discerning truth online affects not only your reputation but also the security of your financial decisions. Maintaining strong judgment is more important than ever.
Deepfake videos—entirely fake but realistic media generated with AI—have become more convincing in recent years. These videos appear in situations ranging from fake celebrity endorsements of risky schemes to political hoaxes designed to mislead.
Advances in technology have improved the quality of these fake videos, but they still show signs of manipulation. As financial advisors, we recommend a "trust but verify" mindset. Critical thinking is crucial whether you’re scrolling your feed or considering a new investment.
For this Christmas Season and beyond, we want to offer tips to help you identify these subtle and obvious red flags.
1. Watch the Face Closely: The "Uncanny Valley" Test
- Blink Patterns: Real people blink naturally and unconsciously, typically every few seconds. Deepfakes often show strange blinking patterns, such as being too frequent, too rare, or oddly mechanical.
- Facial Expressions: Does the face match the emotion in the voice? Watch for a smile that doesn’t reach the eyes or anger that looks strangely stiff.
- Warping and Shimmering: Pay special attention to the edges where the AI struggles to blend the fake face: the eyes, mouth, jawline, and where hair meets skin. You might notice subtle warping, flickering, or shimmering in these spots.
2. Listen for Glitches and Mismatches
- Lip Sync: Watch the person’s mouth, especially when they make sounds like “b,” “p,” and “m.” Deepfakes sometimes get the required mouth shapes wrong. Even a slight mismatch between lip movement and sound is a red flag.
- Voice Quality: Does the voice sound oddly flat or robotic? Are there strange pauses or words that seem awkwardly stitched together?
- Background Audio: Check if the background sounds match the visuals. If someone appears to be speaking outdoors but there’s zero ambient noise, or if the background sound cuts in and out unnaturally, something is likely wrong.
3. Study the Details: Lighting and Texture
- Inconsistent Lighting: Deepfakes often struggle with consistent shadows and lighting because they are overlaying one image onto another. Look for unnatural light sources or shadows that don’t make sense.
- Skin Texture: Does the skin appear unusually smooth, almost plastic-like? Does it seem to flicker or change quality between moments?
- Body Sync: Watch how the head and body move together; deepfakes sometimes show head movements that float unnaturally or don’t quite sync with shoulder and body motion.
4. Verify the Source Before You Share
- Has this been reported by known, reputable journalists or fact-checking sites?
- Can you find the original footage? (Try a reverse image search on a screenshot of the video.)
The Bottom Line
Deepfakes are becoming more convincing. Staying informed gives you an edge. The goal is not paranoia, but healthy skepticism about important content.
Your judgment is your greatest asset. Take extra time to observe, think critically, and verify information. In a world of sophisticated manipulation, your attention and judgment matter most.
The Holiday Season is a prime time for scammers. ALWAYS question a text, email, phone call, or social post from every source. Your first line of defense is to NOT DO ANYTHING. Don’t click that link, hang up if you are being asked personal questions, and just because a friend, family member, or co-worker shared a post doesn't mean it is safe. ALWAYS, do your own research, and if it sounds too good to be true, or if you are being asked to supply ANY personal information, STOP, HANG-UP, DON'T CLICK, and then call a trusted person or our team at DFG for guidance.