For years I have told you about scammers posing as various popular celebrities in ads and on social media luring people into making payments for worthless products.  However, with the increased of Artificial Intelligence these phony ads and scams have become both more believable looking and more frequent as the deepfake and other AI technology becomes readily available to less technologically savvy scammers. Back in 2023 I told you about a scam where a deepfake image of Chef Gordon Ramsey was used to trick people into a scam involving Hexclad cookware.  Videos also appeared on social media such as TikTok and Facebook that appeared to show Taylor Swift endorsing and giving away Le Crueset cookware.  If you click on the link provided you are sent to counterfeit websites of popular cooking websites where you see further phony testimonials.  You are then asked to provide credit or debit card information to cover the cost of the shipping of the free cookware.  Unfortunately, just as there was no free Hexclad cookware being given away by Gordon Ramsay, there is no free Le Crueset cookware being given away by Taylor Swift and all you succeed in doing is giving your credit card or debit card information to a scammer.

More recently Deepfakes of Taylor Swift have appeared in TikTok ads promoting a fake “TikTok Pay” program.  However the most frequent celebrity deepfake scams involve Elon Musk endorsing various cryptocurrency platforms and investments that are all scams.

TIPS

Of course, anything too good to be true is generally not true and the offer of expensive cookware for free should immediately arouse skepticism.  In cases such as this, if you had any thought that the offer might be legitimate you should confirm the offer by going to the official website of both Taylor Swift and of LeCrueset.   If the offer was in any way legitimate, it would appear on both of those websites.

As for any celebrity endorsement, you should not take it at face value.  Confirm on the celebrity’s website to see if they really do endorse a particular product.

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