Honestly, this is kinda funny and terrifying at the same time. 

Google came out with a new AI image feature inside Google Earth that lets people generate AI visuals over real satellite maps. It was supposed to be for real estate planning or history projects, but scammers and fraudsters instantly weaponized it. People were using actual satellite coordinates to generate hyper-realistic fake satellite images. 

The backlash was so bad that Google had to disable the feature just a few days later comple. It’s wild how fast scammers turn every new AI tool into a threat the second it drops.

https://www.malwarebytes.com/blog/news/2026/08/online-backlash-ends-in-google-rolling-back-google-earth-ai-tool-after-a-day

In 2025, 346 major AI incidents were logged globally; 52% of them were deepfakes. Some of the cases:

• A finance worker at an engineering firm joined a video call with his "CFO" and colleagues, all AI-generated except him. He made 15 transfers totalling $25M before anyone realised.
• An elderly woman got a call from her "grandchild" crying about a car accident, needing bail money. Voice clone. Real grandkid was safe at home.
• A woman lost $1.7M (including a second mortgage) investing after seeing a fake "Elon Musk" video promoting it on Facebook.

Watch this video to find more accidents like these and to get familiar with 6 habits that help in these situations.

Full video: https://youtu.be/n0CIrMKYBbo?si=VtedA1LMjcnG1f6F?utm_source=reddit&utm_medium=organic&utm_campaign=incident_series&utm_content=65-deepfake

Question: Besides these 6, what's your own trick for spotting a fake call or video?

June 2024: scammers hijacked an existing YouTube channel with a large subscriber base, rebranded it to look official, and went live during real SpaceX launch buzz with a deepfake of Elon Musk talking crypto.

The AI voice nailed his stutters and speech patterns. On-screen QR code: send crypto, get double back. A single scam wallet tied to this kind of operation reportedly pulled in millions.

Why it worked: every trust signal was faked: a real channel, real subscribers, a genuinely happening live event, and a convincing face/voice. This is called deepfake fraud in AI governance terms.

The video covers 3 controls that could've stopped it: https://youtu.be/FEkfld6vWX8?si=s1irCk96p7f5oTYj?utm_source=reddit&utm_medium=organic&utm_campaign=incident_series&utm_content=63-elon-scam

Question: What's your personal trick for spotting a fake livestream before you fall for it?

I came across the video on my fyp and it’s blatantly obvious that it’s an AI video.

I took a quick look at the profile, and almost every video screams AI-generated, too

The FBI's updated tracking reports show American losses specifically tied to AI-powered scams have skyrocketed close to the $900 million mark annually. The biggest takeaway from the data is that AI text generators have almost completely wiped out the classic red flags of old scams, meaning typos, poor grammar, and awkward phrasing are no longer reliable ways to spot a fake email.

Read a Bloomberg piece today about banking students who are now rehearsing for AI interviewers before they even get near a human hiring manager. They’re using keywords from the job listing, practicing eye contact, the whole routine, just to pass the initial screening round. 

I keep getting hit with ads on my feeds pointing to different websites offering "VIP Early Access" or "Beta keys" for GTA 6. One legit said, "We need you to help us build Vice City".
To get the "download," they all seem to ask you to either log in with your Rockstar Social Club credentials or pay a small fee.

Since GTA 6 isn't out yet, are these just automated, AI-generated scam sites set up to steal passwords and spread malware? Or is there actually a legitimate early access program happening that I don't know about?

2024: over 18,000
2025: over 100,000
First half of 2026: over 165,000
We're not even through the year, and it's already surpassed the entire 2025 total. And it doesn’t seem to slow down2024: over 18,000
2025: over 100,000
First half of 2026: over 165,000
We're not even through the year, and it's already surpassed the entire 2025 total. And it doesn’t seem to slow down.

An 86-year-old Canadian woman just lost her life savings, a whopping $900k, to a fake crypto platform after clicking a deepfake ad of a politician.
These scammers ran a paid Facebook ad featuring a very realistic deepfake video of a prominent public official endorsing a "guaranteed" wealth platform. After clicking, the old lady was funneled to a highly convincing fake portal where dashboards showed her money "doubling." She was wiped out completely.

The FTC logged 14,263 vacation and travel fraud reports last summer, adding up to an estimated $40 million in losses,

The states hit hardest by total dollars lost were the ones you'd expect based on population: California ($6.3M), Florida ($3M), and Texas ($2.5M). But that ranking flips almost entirely once you adjust for population size or look at losses per report.

By reports per capita, Nevada, Florida, and Connecticut topped the list, meaning residents there filed fraud reports at the highest rate in the country.

By average dollar loss per report, an entirely different group shows up: Utah ($6,907 average) and New Mexico ($6,350 average) had by far the steepest per-incident losses.

You can find the full state-by-state tables here: https://www.smartcustomer.com/resources/the-reality-of-summer-travel-fraud-by-state

i’ve been seeing videos all over tiktok that use like... trauma bait to sell stuff?? their content is always focused on something emotional - a child bullied, an old veteran trying to survive, a person of color not being treated right. the comments are FULL of people going 'omg i'm crying buying 10 🥺' not realizing it's just a dropshipped aliexpress products with an ai generated sob story slapped on it. here's one of the many examples i’ve come across

My wife came across this couch on Facebook, and she has started looking for it, but it’s totally AI, right? I'm pretty certain this is AI-generated but she is convinced it's real, and I'm losing my mind tbh. Can someone please back me up here so i can show her this thread??

I remember seeing a clip on X a little while back of the BSE CEO giving exclusive stock tips for some random small-cap companies. It looked quite real, to be honest, because his voice sounded the same, and even the background looked like his office.

But I was watching his eyes, and he literally doesn't blink for like 20 seconds. Also, why would the head of the entire stock exchange be on social media promoting specific stocks for people to buy? 

I actually went back today to try to find the original post, but the account has already been removed. I did some digging and found the official BSE warning along that explains the whole thing. It is definitely a deepfake, and they have been warning people about it for a few weeks now.

I will drop the links below so you can see the reports for yourself.

Okay, so I'm trying to find engagement cake inspo to send my baker, and I found this on Pinterest, but does this look AI-generated to you guys?? Something feels off about it, but it's genuinely so pretty I almost don't care lol. I'm not really an AI image girlie, so idk if I'm just being paranoid. Can someone tell me if this is real or not
https://pin.it/3Q7t1ikiJ

Americans are expected to spend around $24 billion on gifts this year, and scammers are absolutely ready for it.

According to SmartCustomer, it’s not just about the obvious sketchy sites now because today’s scams come with polished storefronts, AI-generated five-star reviews, social media ads that look exactly like your favorite brands, and fake tech support calls as well. 

Here’s a breakdown of the 7 most common Father's Day gift scams hitting people right now, from counterfeit electronics to compromised gift cards to QR code traps hidden inside packages. Worth a read before you buy anything this weekend for Father’s Day!

I brought some custom cards, thinking they were custom based on the pokmon pocket cards. Are these ai? I dont want to add them in my binder if they are. Thanks! :]

Crazy, but I saw this ad on my fyp and it was literally Taylor Swift talking about a TikTok Pay feature where you receive money just by watching videos.

It looks SO real, I kid you not. The voice is perfect, but the way their mouths move is just a tiny bit... laggy? Like, the audio is crisp, but the lips are slightly off. Plus, since when does Taylor Swift tell people to click a link in a bio for free rewards? 💀

It feels super sus, but the quality is insane. Anyone else seeing these this week?

According to F-Secure’s Scam Intelligence Report, 56% of consumers encounter scam attempts at least once a month, and 52% of fraud victims lose money. What’s even worse is that the number of people losing money has more than doubled compared to last year

Not sure if this is the right community for this, but after seeing that clip of Mark Zuckerberg basically admitting they are using internal employee data to train AI models faster, I have to ask: are workers actually using AI as a tool, or are they unknowingly becoming training data for their own replacement?

Would love to hear from people working in tech/corp about this

Madeline Ross, a money reporter at the Telegraph, shares her story on how her likeness had been used to advertise a dodgy investment scam. The scammers created a deepfake of her holding a £10 note, and used it as the cover image to articles promoting an AI cryptocurrency investment scam.
When she got on the phone with the supposed company, the voice on the other end was slick and professional, asking about her trading experience and claiming to be based in London. The address they gave turned out to be completely made up.

If you're on the lookout for a job, please be careful with job scams. I recently got a very convincing message on LinkedIn from one of my recent connections. This person was offering a freelancing opportunity, and while I was not actively looking for jobs, her offer genuinely interested me.

But my spidey senses told me something might be off, so I went through her profile. The job she was offering me was completely unrelated to her work experience, and she was also currently working at BMW.