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Is That Video Call an AI Deepfake? What You Can Check in the Moment
Scammers now use real-time AI face-swapping to impersonate bank staff, bosses, even family on video calls, and the footage barely shows a flaw. Real cases, what researchers are building, and checks you can try mid-call instead of finding out you were scammed later.
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If you suspect the person on your video call is an AI , the fastest way to check is asking them to do something they haven't rehearsed, turning their head to a full profile, or waving a hand across their face. Those two moves are still where face-swapping software has a chance of slipping.
Researchers take this seriously too. In August, Germany's Fraunhofer Institute for Secure Information Technology (SIT) showed a proof-of-concept system that analyzes audio and video throughout a live meeting and raises a warning once enough red flags pile up. The researchers are candid that automatic detection still makes mistakes, and the system isn't built into Zoom or Teams yet.
This piece pulls together the tests security researchers have actually verified, plus a free tool available in Taiwan, into a handful of things you can do the moment you're on a call like this.
Why Is a Deepfake So Hard to Catch on a Live Video Call?
Today's face-swapping software runs in real time, tracking your caller's face as they actually move and talk.
Older fakes had to be recorded and swapped in ahead of time, and the seams showed: blurry footage, lighting that didn't quite match. That's not the case anymore. The AI now calculates frame by frame, matching lip movement and responding normally when you ask it something. In March last year, a finance director at a multinational company in Singapore was pulled into a Zoom call where several executives, including the CEO, were deepfakes. Following instructions from the call, he transferred about US$499,000. When the scammers came back the next day asking for US$1.4 million, he grew suspicious and reported it, and police in Singapore and Hong Kong stopped the money in time.
You might think blurry footage and odd lighting would still give it away. The difference is that this generation runs live and can hold a normal conversation with you, so judging it by whether it looks real isn't enough anymore.
Watching the screen alone won't settle it. You need a test that forces it to slip.
What Are the Two Best Tests You Can Run in the Moment?
The two most effective tests are asking the person to turn their head to a full profile, and asking them to wave a hand quickly across their face.
Face-swapping models get trained mostly on frontal and slightly angled photos scraped from social media, so a full profile angle or a hand suddenly blocking the face pushes the software into its weakest spot, where flickering, warped edges, or a stutter tend to show up. If the person hesitates, makes an excuse, or refuses a request this simple, treat that as the biggest red flag of all, more telling than anything you'll spot on screen.
Fraunhofer's team analyzes the whole call for the same reason: keeping a fake flawless every single second is hard. You don't have their software on your call, so your tool is an improvised test.
Neither test is foolproof though, the technology keeps improving, so it helps to have a second layer of verification ready.
What If You Still Can't Tell Just by Watching?
If you're still not sure, ask something only the real person would know, or hang up and call back through a number you already had saved.
It's the same logic covered in a companion piece on LINE scams, just applied to a face on screen instead of text or a voice. Taiwan also has a free tool that helps with exactly this: Trend Micro's AI scam-check app, launched in late 2024, has a deepfake detection feature that analyzes the other person's video during LINE or Instagram calls and alerts you if it looks AI-altered. There's no independent accuracy test yet, so treat it as one more warning sign, not the final word.
Whether or not you're running a tool, the same principle applies once someone asks for a transfer or your ID details.
Someone Suddenly Asks You to Wire Money. Now What?
The moment a video call turns into a request for a transfer, a verification code, or a photo of your passbook, treat it as fraud first and sort out the truth afterward.
So how do you tell a genuine emergency from someone pressuring you? The scripts rarely change: your account needs fixing right now, please don't mention this to anyone else, pay through some unfamiliar method, or the receiving account doesn't even carry the right name. These red flags show up whether the scam arrives by text, voice, or video. The only thing AI face-swapping changed is that video now feels more trustworthy than it used to.
Once you can spot those flags, what's left is the handful of things you'd actually do the moment it happens.
Five Things Worth Remembering
- Ask the person to turn to a full profile or wave a hand across their face. A real person does it without thinking; an AI deepfake often glitches right there.
- If they hesitate, stall, or make an excuse not to, treat that alone as a strong warning sign.
- Still can't tell? Ask something only the real person would know, or hang up and call back on a number you already had saved.
- If you've got an anti-fraud app like AI Scam Buster installed, open it during the call and let it scan the feed in real time.
- The moment a video call turns into a request for money, a code, or your passbook, treat it as fraud. When unsure, call Taiwan's 165 anti-fraud hotline.
Deepfakes will keep getting better, but an improvised question and a call back on a number you trust keep working however the technology changes. The Singapore money was stopped because someone got suspicious early and reported it fast.
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