The scheme: real footage, fake content
The fraudsters take a genuine TV excerpt and use AI to replace the audio track and the lip movements. The trustworthy frame stays: studio set, familiar faces, broadcaster branding. Add urgency ("today only") and a link to a platform with a serious-sounding name - in this case "Investhub 3.0". Whoever registers gets a friendly call, then an alleged broker pushes for ever larger deposits into gold, oil or crypto.
Variants of the same scheme have been circulating for months: with startup shows, in news-broadcast styling, with politicians and entrepreneurs. The pattern never changes - only the faces do.
Three checks in 10 seconds
First, the lip-sync check: when a voice has been replaced, lip-closure sounds like B, M and P don’t quite match the picture, and pauses feel slightly off. Watch the speaker’s mouth for five focused seconds - dubbed deepfakes rarely fit perfectly.
Second, the context check: would a public broadcaster advertise an investment? Search for the clip’s title plus the words fact check. Scam clips never exist in the broadcaster’s official media library - real segments always do.
Third, the technical check: drop the video link or file into our free AI video check - in under a minute the result shows whether picture or audio have been AI-manipulated. No sign-up, no cost. To practise, try the Daily Challenge with a new case every day.
Why talk-show clips, of all things?
Talk shows give fraudsters everything they need: long, steady shots of a talking face (ideal for AI re-dubbing), maximum credibility through broadcaster and host, and an audience used to hearing financial topics there. And since a few seconds of audio are enough for a voice clone, every public figure has become copyable. The EU’s labelling requirement changes none of this - criminals don’t label.
If money has already been sent
Contact your bank immediately and ask about chargebacks. File a police report - in most places this works online. Save screenshots of the ad, the platform and any chats. And do not accept "recovery offers" that appear afterwards - they are almost always the next stage of the same fraud.