How to Detect Fake Video Calls

Video calls like Facetime, Skype, and Google Hangouts have become a great way to get to know someone online. Over the last few years since the start of the global pandemic, millions of people find themselves connecting with people through video calls. But what many people don’t know is that faking video calls is one of the main ways romance scammers get their victims to trust them before they take them for everything.

In this article, we’ll break down exactly how to spot if the person you’re talking to is a scammer faking video calls.

Why Would Someone Fake A Video Call?

There are a few reasons why someone might want to fake a Facetime or video call, but all of these reasons come down to one thing – deception. Most video calls are faked because the person who created them is looking to create a false appearance. A lot of the time it is for the purpose of scamming, particularly romance scams. In a romance scam, people steal images from people online, and to convince their targets that they’re talking to the real person, they will stage a video call.

The Fastest Way to Tell if a Video Call is Fake

There are many signs that can help you tell if Facetime is fake. A reverse image search can save you time and take all of the guesswork out of your decision. Use the search bar below to run your first search today!

What are Fake Video Calls?

Fake video calls are exactly what they sound like: they are video calls that don’t actually stream the other person’s video or webcam footage, which means, it isn’t exactly a live call. Most of the time, fake video calls are implemented using different footage altogether, voiced over by the deceiver to appear authentic to the person or people being deceived.

Unfortunately for most of us, these fake video calls can be done on a lot of video calling platforms, such as Google Hangouts, Whatsapp, Skype, and Zoom.

There are a lot of reasons why people resort to faking their end of the webcam. Some students pre-record themselves in order to fake their attendance in online classes. Some people use video clips of attractive people during online dating calls to appear like an ideal match. Some use video calls to scam people– pretending to be their friends, loved ones, or someone respectable in order to attain vital information such as bank data and account data. Whatever reason it is, it’s best to be on the lookout for these falsified calls.

How Scammers Execute Fake Video Chats

Educating yourself on how other people can manipulate video calls to their advantage will definitely be useful in detecting them. The video manipulation techniques vary from platform to platform, so fake video calls are not limited to one method. Here are a few ways scammers tend to implement these fake video calls.

Through Software like ManyCam and OBS

One method is to use software like ManyCam and OBS. Note that this software was not specifically created for faking videos– software like ManyCam is made to make video streaming versatile (such as adding an option to join multiple video calls with a single webcam stream, which tends to be useful for streamers), while software similar to OBS tend to be utilized for screen recording as well as streaming.

Since ManyCam makes video streams extremely customizable, many scammers use it to alter key points in video calls, such as streaming a completely different video. This, too, can be done on OBS. Both software can use any video of your choice and can be exploited to have a video appear as an authentic live webcam feed.

Through Deepfake

Deepfake is a tool that uses artificial intelligence in order to produce fake videos using the faces of other people. This is done by “feeding” the AI with various videos of a single person (usually tested with celebrities). This AI will then “learn” how to make new videos using this person’s face and features..

This technology is most of the time used by overlaying these facial features over other videos seamlessly– taking mouth movement, eye movement, and even manifestations of emotions such as expressions and reactions into account. Some people can even use their webcam feed to pretend they are someone else by using deepfake during live recording. In this manner, identity theft and deception can be achieved, especially if the AI was trained with a lot of data.

How to Spot Fake Video Calls

With these few tools paired with so many creative ways to fake video calls, it’s as important as ever to learn how to spot these deceptive video calls. Here are a few things to watch out for in order to spot those pesky fake video calls.

Quality

Is the quality of the video really low? Don’t shrug off that blurriness and static! Scammers tend to intentionally lower the quality of the videos they stream so that you won’t notice anything out of order with the footage being used. If possible, it’s best to ask about what area they’re in (distance tends to affect network connectivity, especially if they’re in a different country) and what type of webcam they’re using just to make sure it’s not a hardware or connectivity issue.

Looping

Take note of repetitive actions. Some scammers will try to loop the videos they stream to you, especially if your call is longer than expected. Try to see if actions are repeated, or if there even is any movement at all on their end.

Size

If the size of anything in the video, such as the person’s face, is too stretched or too squished, chances are, the scammer had to edit their source video and resize it to the video chat platform’s supported resolution. 

Expressions and Gestures

Try to observe the expressions and gestures they are making as they talk. Do they match what they’re saying, or do they seem completely out of place and random to you? Scammers tend to dub their source videos with their voice in real-time, so it’s definitely going to be difficult for them to ad lib– if you know what to watch out for.

Not Showing Face

Some scammers who are less savvy with the likes of ManyCam and OBS would choose not to show their faces during a video call. Some would keep their phones facing a strange direction, such as upwards towards the ceiling. Others would be constantly focused on a single side of their room. Being on a video call with a stranger– or even someone you know– who hasn’t shown their face once might be a sign to be on your toes.

Conclusion

When it comes to spotting a fake Facetime or video chat, the tips we provided in this post can be a reliable way of telling if the video has been tampered with, there is a better way of telling if a video chat is fake, this way is called a reverse image search. A reverse image search will tell you whether or not the person you are talking to has stolen someone’s identity online. Use the purple search bar below to find out the truth.