Have you seen an ad featuring your favorite celebrity promoting an offer that seems too good to be true? In the advertisement, you may have heard the celebrity making an offer that doesn't make sense or inviting you to participate in a giveaway to win a highly valued product by only paying the shipping fee.

Your guess is correct: the ad is probably fake, potentially created using AI voice generators to mimic your favorite celebrity's voice. So how can you spot such a scam? How should you deal with it?

What Does the Phony Celebrity Giveaway Ad Look Like?

Fake Rachael Ray Ad About Free Le Creuset Giveaway on Facebook

Featuring famous stars—in particular Martha Stewart, Miranda Lambert, Rachael Ray, Gordon Ramsay, Ree Drummond, and others—the fake giveaway ad announces a partnership with a famous brand, specifically Le Creuset, and offers one of the brand's expensive products for free or at a discounted price.

Scammers pull videos fragments of celebrities' shows from the internet and combine them into a video ad. For narrations, scammers use AI voice generators to mimic the voices of well-known people, making the voice sound authentic. After that, they combine the audio and video to create the advertisement, which they then promote on various social media sites and apps.

The ad directs users to click on the embedded link to participate in the fake giveaway, and that is how they trap victims.

How Does the Fake Celebrity Giveaway Ad Scam Work?

Scammers can feed AI voice generators any script to generate a voiceover mimicking any celebrity. Because of that, fraudsters can technically give such a scam whatever angle they like after generating audio of any kind. Nonetheless, let's look at some common ways scammers use to deceive victims in this fake celebrity giveaway scam.

The bogus advertisement embeds a link that takes victims to a fake giveaway form. Participants are required to enter their personal information, address, social security number, credit card details, and other sensitive information. These should all set off alarm bells. Having access to such vital information, scammers can take advantage of it as they see fit.

According to some users who have fallen victim to this scam, the ad or the form it links to requires them to pay a small shipping fee to supposedly receive their award. Given the actual value of the giveaway product could amount to hundreds of dollars, the would-be victims happily authorize their credit cards to be charged for shipping.

Some users have reported that their credit card was charged more than once after participating in this giveaway. Looking at the terms and conditions of the giveaway, scammers appear to secretly take people's consent to participate in the giveaway every week or every month—conditions we blindly accept. That's the reason for the multiple charges.

Basically, scammers make money by exploiting potential victims' personal information or by charging a small shipping fee for items they don't intend to deliver.

How Can You Spot a Fake Celebrity Giveaway Ad?

Recognizing fake ads featuring celebrities is simple and straightforward. You can tell if an ad is fake by these signs:

  • The fake ads are run through random pages or accounts that aren't even verified. If the ad isn't run by a verified page of the celebrity or brand, it's probably a scam.
  • The audio and video content of the fake ad won't match properly, and clips taken from online shows will appear to be thrown into the ad at random.
  • Despite posing a severe cybersecurity threat, AI voice generators have a hard time pronouncing brand and product names accurately. Should there be a discrepancy in pronunciation, the advertisement is not legitimate.
  • An embedded link in fraudulent ads leads to a fake giveaway form on a random website. Unless the ad directs you to the official website of the celebrity or the brand they have partnered with, it's a scam.

Knowing the above signs will enable you to spot fake ads more quickly, but how should you respond when encountering them?

How Should You Respond to a Fake Ad Featuring a Celebrity?

If the ad you see appears to be running from the celebrity's verified page or account, the giveaway is announced by the celebrity personally in the video, the embedded link takes you to the celebrity's or brand's official website, the audio and video content are well synced, and the ad seems genuine, then you can apply for the giveaway. Stay skeptical, though, and trust your gut.

If the ad looks fishy and does not meet the requirements of a genuine advert, you should avoid clicking on it. If you're sure the ad is fake, report it before scrolling any further. You can also add a message to the ad's comment section about why you think the ad is suspicious and warn others about it.

Report the page or account through which the fake ad is running so that the social media platform can block it. This will help to protect the broader community from being scammed.

Some users have reported that fake celebrity giveaway ads also appear in mobile apps and websites. Don't hesitate to report an advertisement like that if you see it.

Applied to a Fake Giveaway? Here's What to Do Next

If you've already paid the shipping fee to the scammers behind this advertisement, request a refund from your credit card company. Also, ask your payment company to stop any further deductions for this giveaway or from the same company, as cybercriminals operating this scam sneakily take consent for recurring charges from your account periodically.

If you shared your bank account or other financial details when filling out the fake giveaway form, let your bank know and temporarily freeze automatic transactions. It will prevent scammers from deducting money from your account in the future.

Lastly, keep an eye out for phishing attempts through your email or phone number that you just shared with scammers.

The giveaway terms and conditions mention how to cancel your participation if you want; calling or emailing the scammers is the only way to do this. However, we don't recommend contacting scammers directly, as they can further trap you.

Protect Yourself From Fake Celebrity Advertisements

AI voice generation poses a serious cybersecurity threat. Knowing how scammers exploit this technology to mimic your favorite celebrities will help you avoid getting scammed by advertisements featuring them. If you have already been a victim, follow the tips above to limit the damage.

While saving yourself from such scams should be your priority, don't forget to spread the word about them to keep others safe.