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Random freezes, missing sound and display glitches usually trace back to one bad driver. Find and replace yours safely.Free scan · under a minuteA convincing face or voice is not proof of identity. If a call, message, or video urges you to send money, share sensitive information, or keep a request secret, pause and verify it through a number or website you found independently. Visual clues can raise suspicion, but neither a quick inspection nor a detector can establish authenticity on its own.
How can I tell if a video or voice message is a deepfake?
Deepfakes can use synthetic or altered images, audio, and video to impersonate public figures or people the target knows. The FBI and American Bankers Association Foundation’s 2025 infographic suggests watching and listening for inconsistencies such as distorted facial features, unusual blinking, unnatural hair or teeth, mismatched sound and movement, an unnatural voice tone, or odd shadows and lighting.
Treat these as reasons to look more closely, not as a dependable checklist. A polished fake may have no obvious artifacts, while a genuine recording may look or sound unusual because of lighting, compression, editing, or recording conditions. A familiar voice or face alone cannot verify who is contacting you.
How do I verify a suspicious call, message, or video?
Verify the person or request through another channel
- Stop before acting. Do not transfer money, reveal a password or personal information, or agree to keep the conversation secret while you check the request.
- Contact the person or organization independently. Use a trusted number already saved or obtained from an official website—not a number, link, or contact detail supplied only by the suspicious caller or message.
- Use a pre-arranged family codeword if you have one. The FBI/ABA infographic recommends creating codewords with loved ones. A codeword is a useful check, but it should not replace independent verification if anything still feels wrong.
- For a video or audio clip, look for its original source and context. Check when and where it was first published, whether it may have been cropped or altered, and whether independent reliable outlets or primary documents corroborate the claim.
A clip can be misleading without being synthetic: it may be genuine footage presented with a false date, edited to remove context, or paired with an inaccurate description. Assessing what a clip shows and whether a caller is who they claim to be are related but distinct questions.
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Can a deepfake detector prove a video is real?
No single result should be treated as proof. NIST’s Trustworthy and Responsible AI 100-4, published November 20, 2024, and its landing page, updated April 8, 2026, survey several complementary approaches to synthetic-content transparency and authenticity. These approaches answer different questions:
| Approach | What it can indicate | What it does not establish by itself |
|---|---|---|
| Provenance or content credentials | Information about a file’s source or recorded history, when available | That every step in the history is truthful, or that the file represents the full context |
| Labels or watermarks | A declared indication that content is synthetic or has been marked by a particular system | That all synthetic content will carry a mark, or that an absent mark means a file is genuine |
| Forensic detection | An estimate that particular content may have been manipulated or generated | Conclusive authentication across every medium, model, edit, or platform |
Results can depend on the media type, format, platform, and changes such as editing or recompression. The cited NIST overview does not provide a consumer ranking or quantified performance comparison of commercial detectors. If you consider uploading media to a detection service, check its current privacy and retention policies; the sources here do not evaluate specific vendors.
What should I do if someone claiming to be a family member asks for money urgently?
Do not let urgency, secrecy, or an alarming story rush you into payment. End or pause the exchange, then call the family member using a number you already trust. If you cannot reach them, contact another trusted person who can help confirm the situation. Do not rely on the suspicious conversation’s caller ID, voice, or supplied contact details as verification.
The CFTC’s Office of Customer Education and Outreach Director Melanie Devoe said in a March 19, 2025 advisory about financial fraud and online-only contacts: “Identifying real from fake can be difficult. The best defense is to never give money to people you only meet online.” The advisory also recommends stronger social-media privacy settings and keeping sensitive information private. This is a warning about financial fraud involving online-only contacts, not a reason to treat every online interaction or transaction as fraudulent.
What should I do if I already sent money or shared credentials?
- Contact your bank or payment provider promptly. Use a contact method you verify independently and explain that you suspect fraud. Ask whether the payment can be stopped or recalled and what account-protection steps are appropriate.
- Report the suspected scam to the FBI’s Internet Crime Complaint Center at IC3.gov.
- Consider contacting local police. The FBI/ABA infographic names the bank, IC3.gov, and local police as reporting destinations.
- Preserve relevant evidence if it is safe to do so. Keep messages, phone numbers, transaction details, and the media involved; do not delete the conversation before recording the details you may need.
If you shared a password, change it using the service’s official site or app and review account security. Use an independently verified contact route for any follow-up; scammers may continue contacting a person after an initial loss.
Independent reader supportYour contribution helps us test, update, and keep practical guides available for everyone.Where do I report an AI-enabled scam, and what do the fraud figures show?
For a suspected U.S. internet-related crime, the FBI/ABA infographic points readers to IC3.gov; it also names contacting your bank and local police. Reporting channels and legal processes differ by country, so readers outside the United States should use their own national or local authorities.
Federal figures show the scale of reported fraud, but they do not measure how much was caused by AI or deepfakes:
| Figure | What it covers | Source and qualification |
|---|---|---|
| About $16 billion in reported losses | All types of fraud reported by U.S. consumers for calendar year 2025 | Federal Trade Commission, June 2026; not an AI-specific total |
| $3.5 billion in reported losses | Imposter scams reported by U.S. consumers for calendar year 2025 | Federal Trade Commission, June 2026; relevant to impersonation, but not specifically attributed to synthetic media |
| More than 4.2 million fraud reports and $50.5 billion in losses | Fraud reports and losses “since 2020” | As printed in the 2025 FBI/ABA Foundation infographic; the cited text does not state a specific end date for this cumulative period, and these are not AI-specific figures |
FTC totals are reported consumer losses and reports; they may not capture all fraud. They should not be described as AI-fraud losses.
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How can I reduce the chance of impersonation?
- Review social-media privacy settings and limit public personal details that could help someone pose as you or a relative.
- Be selective about posting sensitive information and media that could be misused in an impersonation.
- Agree on a family verification habit, such as calling back on a known number or using a codeword for urgent requests.
- Keep in mind that a familiar voice, face, caller ID, watermark, or detection result is only one piece of information—not a substitute for checking the request and its context.
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