Fake endorsements, deepfakes and misleading crypto ads

A fake endorsement is an advertisement or video that makes it look as if a well-known person, a news outlet or a public agency backs a crypto platform. The person never said it. A deepfake is the most polished version: software copies a face and a voice so that a real broadcaster, business owner or politician seems to speak about a trading site. Others are simpler, such as a fabricated news page with a borrowed logo and a made-up quote. The Canadian Anti-Fraud Centre lists these ads among the tools used in crypto investment fraud. The aim is always the same. A trusted face lowers your guard long enough for you to leave your details or move money to a platform you have never heard of.

The path usually has the same order. First, an ad appears in a social feed, on a video site or beside a search result. It carries a familiar face and a bold line about easy growth. A click leads to a page styled like a newspaper article, which quotes the public figure and ends with a sign-up form. After you submit a phone number and an email address, a so-called account manager calls. That person is friendly, patient and keen to move the chat to a private messaging app. A small first deposit follows, then a screen full of rising numbers. According to the Canadian Anti-Fraud Centre, the ads describe the platform as safe and high-return, which is exactly the claim a real regulator would never make.

Picture a woman named Priya who is watching a cooking video when a short clip interrupts. A famous television host seems to explain that ordinary people can join a new trading platform. The voice sounds right, but the lips move a little out of step. Priya pauses the clip and searches for the host's own website and verified social pages. Nothing there mentions any platform. She then searches the platform's name together with the word warning and finds an alert from a provincial regulator. She closes the tab, saves a screenshot of the ad and sends the link to the advertising site's reporting form. At no point did she hand over a phone number or open an account.

Several things go wrong when people trust the face instead of the facts. Someone may click through from the ad, which can open a copy of a real site built to collect logins. A caller may then ask for a screen-sharing app, and that gives a stranger a view of your bank. Others are told that the offer closes today, so they skip every check. The Saskatchewan regulator, the Financial and Consumer Affairs Authority, has published a warning about a suspected crypto scam that used a premier's image and a fake news article, which shows that office holders and regulators are borrowed too. The Competition Bureau names crypto offers promoted through social media, dating apps or ads as a red flag for investment scams.

A few checks can be done alone, with public sources, before anything else happens. Does the endorsement appear on the person's official website, verified account or newsroom, or only in ads? Does the ad promise that nothing can go wrong, or press you to act right now? Can you find the platform in the national registration search run by the Canadian Securities Administrators, or on your provincial regulator's pages? Does a search of the firm's name beside the words warning or scam show alerts from a regulator? Look closely at any video too, since odd blinking, flat speech or mismatched lip movement can point to editing. Type the address of an official site yourself instead of following a link from the ad.

If an ad looks false, leave it unclicked and report it. The sources below say that the report can go to the platform that displayed the ad and to the Canadian Anti-Fraud Centre. A provincial securities regulator can also be told, and it may publish a warning for others. Reporting does not promise that lost money returns, and this page cannot say whether a particular ad is genuine. It is general education, not legal or financial advice. For wording on current scam types, read the pages published by the Canadian Anti-Fraud Centre, the Competition Bureau and the regulator in your province, because those bodies update their warnings as new tricks appear.

• An endorsement that appears only in ads and not on the person's own official channels is a warning sign
• Check the claim on the official site you type in yourself, never through the ad's link
• Report a suspect ad to the platform that showed it and to the Canadian Anti-Fraud Centre