“Don’t be fooled. » Tuesday evening, YouTuber Tibo InShape warned his subscribers against false advertising which hijacks his image and that of journalist Anne-Claire Coudray, presenter of the TF1 television news.
In this fake video, we see the most followed YouTuber in France advertising an online casino application, even though these games are banned in France. The video is presented in such a way as to suggest that it is a TF1 report.
As Tibo InShape writes, this is indeed a scam, which uses a technique of deepfake : the voices of the YouTuber and the journalist were manipulated and added to their images. The scammers make them say things they never said. As for the application touted in this advertisement, it no longer appears in the Apple or Android catalogs.
Tibo InShape is not the first personality whose image has been misused to promote a scam. Kylian Mbappé, Alain Delon, Elise Lucet and even the singer Taylor Swift have paid the price in recent months for this type of process. Faced with the proliferation of this content on social networks, how can we avoid being fooled? A few reflexes allow you to avoid most of these traps.
“Sync issues”
First of all, pay attention to the quality of the video. Even if the level of these tricks improves day by day, “there are always problems of synchronization between the voice and the mouth”, underlines with 20 Minutes Jean-Jacques Latour, cybersecurity expertise director of the government site cybermalveillance.gouv. This is the case in the video on which Tibo InShape alerts: the YouTuber’s fake voice is not coordinated with the movements of his mouth, like in very bad dubbing.
However, sometimes, “Internet users do not pay attention to this lag, because they are used to having a network that functions poorly, with choppy videos,” continues the expert.
A quick search on the Internet
In this case, what are the other reflexes to have? “Look at the account that posts the video: is it the official account of TF1 or Tibo InShape? » Sometimes scammers create fake accounts that look like celebrities. In this case, it is advisable to go directly to the profile and look at the other posts on the account. If the account is recent or has few posts, beware!
A simple technique is to do an Internet search with the name of the product touted in the advertisement. If questionable results appear, run away.
Lure with money
You must also look at the type of service or application that the advertising promotes: most scams focus on financial products, such as the promotion of cryptocurrencies, online games, so-called miraculous investments, or even on health-related products.
In the event of promoting an online game, if there is still any doubt about its authenticity, Jean-Jacques Latour advises going to the website of the National Gaming Authority, which lists the sites authorized to offer these activities. online. Online casinos are banned in France.
Finally, Jean-Jacques Latour reminds us: “Santa Claus does not exist! “. If the offer is too good to be true, it is better to move on, despite the temptation.
The risk is of losing money via payments on these applications, but also of transmitting your personal and banking data to scammers. Another risk is downloading an application “ info stealer ”, which steals some of your personal data such as your usernames and passwords without your knowledge.
Behind these advertisements lies “organized crime”, recalls Jean-Jacques Latour. So be careful with these fake videos that abound.