[UPDATE 10-26-2024: A spokesperson for HeyGen told us: "We can confirm that the video in question was not created using HeyGen's platform. Upon discovery we reported this harmful content to YouTube, and it has since been removed from their platform.
HeyGen strictly prohibits the creation of unauthorized content, including any materials that could facilitate fraud or scams. Our security protocols are comprehensive, involving automated and manual content reviews, advanced user verification via live video consent, dynamic verbal passcodes, and rapid human review of all avatar verifications. In an abundance of caution, we have also removed specific avatars from our public library to discourage potential abuse.
Trust and Safety are central to our business, and we are actively collaborating across the industry to develop the policies, tools, and best practices necessary to combat misinformation and misuse of AI technology."]
The CEO of HeyGen, a deepfake company, just got cloned on his own website by someone, and then they put his deepfake in an ad for a crypto phishing scam.
Here's the deepfake scam ad. DO NOT DO WHAT THE FAKE PERSON IS TELLING YOU TO DO IN THIS SCAM VIDEO. The video masquerades as a ChatGPT tutorial, but actually leads viewers to download malware that will steal cryptocurrency from digital wallets.
Here's a deepfake of Heygen's CEO on the HeyGen website.
The Boing Boing reader who tipped me off to this said, "I'm no expert in running a company, but when you allow your own users to make phishing videos with your deepfake, maybe you have some serious problems going on?"
The tipster added, "I was looking around to see what this company is all about and this isn't even the first time something like this happened. Heygen made a deepfake of this Ukrainian student and put her in thousands of Russian and Chinese propaganda videos lol."
