How To Protect Yourself Against Scammers and Deepfakes

You may know Experian as a place to check your credit score for free. But they do so much more. Have you heard of Deepfakes? Check out this video to learn all about it.

Welcome back to Bold TV with Philip Michael. Be sure to like, comment, and subscribe to Bold TV for other finance news, and all things Bold.

Joining Philip Michael today is the Vice President of Strategy, Global Identification, and Fraud at Experian, David Britton. We talk all about Deepfakes and fraudsters.

What can we do to protect ourselves from scammers?

Consumers can do a lot. Most importantly, be aware that there are fraudsters everywhere and they are always at work. Every interaction we have on the internet whether it’s watching a video or clicking a link, we should be aware of the potential negative risks behind those actions.

What is a Deepfake? And how do we detect it?

Fraudsters take an image, video or audio of someone and make them say something they never said or change their appearance. Deepfake is an advanced technology that can manipulate what a person looks like or says. It’s an enormous threat driven by the availability of machine learning and advanced analytics technology. So Experian uses the very same machine learning and advanced analytics technology against these scammers and fraudsters. Fighting fire with fire. But another thing to know is that the creation of that content is only one part. The second part is how these fraudsters get the content out? How do they distribute it? This comes down to the method of access to these platforms or online accounts. The issue is not the video or image itself but also the entire ecosystem surrounding it. Can you get it onto those online accounts like Facebook and other online platforms? This is what Experian deals with. They want to identify if there are defense mechanisms that can be put in place to prevent the success of these fraudsters.

Could Deepfakes be used to steal my identity and rack up debt on my credit card?

There is potential for fraud because if you use voice or face recognition technology for authentication purposes, they can perhaps use that against you.

How is Experian helping users protect against these new forms of scams?

Experian is constantly evaluating the threat landscape to ensure that they are aware of what could be dangerous. They are looking ahead to see if these people who use Deepfakes, is it done well enough that it can be used for authentication? Or are these authenticators authenticating our faces and voices with enough accuracy in order to differentiate between our actual selves and our Deepfakes. Effective bot detection is one of Experian’s important goals.

What are some ways we have to be mindful of how these fraudsters can use Deepfakes to take advantage of us?

Britton is most worried about the layer of distrust this can infuse into our society. What happens when rogue nations and leaders use this technology and put words into the mouths of our nation's leaders. This is when it becomes extremely dangerous. The technology isn’t there yet but it is moving towards it. What we need to do as consumers is to question the context and content of these videos.

Have you ever seen Deepfake technology in action? Let us know in the comments below!

Find Experian here

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