How to Spot Crypto Deepfakes | USAEMALL.com

Artificial intelligence tools are getting increasingly powerful with every passing month, and that means the threat of deepfakes is intensifying.

Doctored videos are often used to flog bogus crypto investment schemes, but they can also be weaponized for misinformation — spreading online like wildfire.

A comically bad example of this came in recent days, after Fox News host Laura Ingraham interviewed Donald Trump at the White House.

It appeared to show the president pulling back curtains to proudly display a framed copy of Bitcoin’s whitepaper within the Oval Office.

The clip was accompanied by an amateurish graphic that screamed “TRUMP SHOWS LAURA THE BITCOIN WHITEPAPER” — as if to insinuate that the footage had actually been broadcast on television.

To be honest, it’s difficult to understand what the motivation for this particular deepfake was. There doesn’t seem to have been any financial motive — it might even have been intended as satire.

Yet posts like this underline a serious point: crypto enthusiasts need to be more vigilant than ever before, and question the posts they see online.

So… let’s take a quick look at some top tips for spotting deepfakes.

1. Look Closely at the Face

While AI models can produce some pretty convincing videos, they aren’t perfect. One of their weak spots is perfectly emulating human expressions.

Experts at MIT say that — when you’re looking at footage of a person — scrutinize their cheeks and forehead to see whether they’re too smooth or wrinkly. Pay attention to whether they’re blinking too much… or too little. And focus on the lips too, as unnatural movement can indicate words are being put in their mouth.

2. What Are They Saying?

This next tip links nicely to the red flags that indicate a crypto scam more generally. If you come across a video of Elon Musk or Michael Saylor and they appear to be endorsing an investment opportunity, ask yourself this: would they really appear in a clip making too-good-to-be-true promises?

According to staggering research from McAfee, the average American comes across almost three deepfake videos a day. To make matters worse, there’s a growing trend of hackers overtaking the X accounts of celebrities to shill tokens.

3. Examine the Source

If you’re still pretty convinced that a deepfake video could be legitimate, it’s worth doing some research to see whether the claims stack up.

Typically speaking, a significant video from a notable crypto figure will have attracted coverage from a site like Cryptonews. Check out whether journalists have been able to verify whether this footage is real.

A lack of articles backing up the clip’s content will indicate that it’s bogus.

4. Check the Comments

Communities on X and Facebook can be pretty good at flagging whenever a deepfake video is doing the rounds — through systems such as “Community Notes.” But sometimes, it can take a few hours for warnings to appear.

A good back-up plan is to check the comments underneath a clip, as users will often call out when AI has been used for malicious purposes.

5. Take Extra Care with Audio

While deepfake videos offer certain visual clues that indicate something’s amiss, detecting manipulated audio can be pretty difficult.

Top tips here include scrutinizing the tone of someone’s voice — do they sound flatter, less emotive and less conversational than they usually would?

AI-generated audio often removes breathing noises in between sentences, which sounds incredibly unnatural. There might also be no background noise whatsoever — or too much.

The Stakes Are High

It’s crucial to raise awareness about the warning signs surrounding deepfakes.

One man who saw a manipulated video of a British celebrity ended up losing $35,000 after being tricked into putting his savings into a bogus crypto exchange.

Martin Lewis, a journalist who’s gained a reputation for being a “money saving expert,” described the rise of these clips as “frightening” — and called for regulators and the government to take swift action to protect the public.

Crypto businesses can also end up being vulnerable. Hackers managed to target a number of projects by pretending to be Binance’s former chief strategy officer Patrick Hillman.

Deepfakes have also been used to impersonate a number of other high-profile executives, often by drawing on footage from their past television interviews and conference appearances.

The post How to Spot Crypto Deepfakes appeared first on Cryptonews.

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