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Cameron Nakashima\u00a0joins producer\/host Coralie Chun Matayoshi to discuss how to spot fake celebrity endorsements, how they try to trick you, and how to avoid getting scammed.<\/p>\n
Cameron Nakashima is the\u00a0<\/em><\/strong>Media Engagement & Digital Campaigns Manager for the Better Business Bureau and regular on KHON2 Wakeup 2day.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n Q.\u00a0 Fake celebrity endorsements have been used by unethical businesses for decades.\u00a0 With advanced technology, fake endorsements have taken on new forms and become more difficult to identify and avoid.\u00a0 What is a celebrity endorsement scam?<\/strong><\/p>\n It is a scam where businesses or con artists make it look like a celebrity supports a product when they actually do not. It\u2019s a simple concept, but the bad guys have done some pretty complex things to pull off their schemes.<\/p>\n Q.\u00a0 How do these scams work?<\/strong><\/p>\n You see a post on social media of a celebrity endorsing a weight loss product, health supplement, or another product. In the post, photos show the celebrity using the product, or a video features their voice talking about the amazing results they\u2019ve seen. It sounds too good to be true, but the photos and video look so real!\u00a0 Also, the social media account appears to belong to the celebrity. \u00a0So, you buy the product.\u00a0 In some cases, the best case scenario is that it is a real product, but the company used false advertising techniques to make you believe the product was endorsed by someone it was not.\u00a0 Usually, these scammers are trying to get you to click on their link and buy their product so they can get your money and personal information. When you buy the product, in most cases, the product was a fake, so you never receive anything after placing your order.<\/p>\n Q.\u00a0 How have these scams evolved over time?\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n As you noted at the beginning of this conversation, the idea of this scam is not new, but the execution is. I\u2019ve got a quick story to illustrate this. \u00a0Years ago, I had a vacation in Hollywood and there was this yogurt shop in a popular part of the town that advertised they were a \u201ccelebrity favorite.\u201d\u00a0 Inside the shop, they had a TV playing on loop with pictures and videos of various famous people eating their yogurt. But it went a step further. In one of the shots, there was a video of Zach Efron, the actor from High School Musical and 17 Again. It showed him picking up a flyer from their yogurt shop off his windshield in a parking lot and waving at the camera. \u00a0This was not Zach Efron enjoying their product or promoting it, but you could tell that was the point of the video. They wanted to make it look like he supported and advocated for their product. \u00a0Fast forward a few years and this deception looks different. People start using programs like Photoshop to create photos that make it look like celebrities endorse their products. They\u2019ll photoshop their product into the hands of a celebrity or make it look like the celebrity is a spokesperson for the product. \u00a0In the past few years, deep-fake video editing techniques and AI have started to be used to make videos with fake celebrity endorsements. And it\u2019s looking more convincing every year. To get an idea of how far this technology has come, you can look up the side-by-side video of Will Smith eating spaghetti.\u00a0 Both are made by AI but one is a few months old and the other is a year or two old. The difference and level of believability is night and day.<\/p>\n Q.\u00a0 What about offers for free products or 2 for 1 deals?<\/strong><\/p>\n A recent example includes a scammer posing as celebrity chef Gordon Ramsay, and even Taylor Swift, endorsing free cookware. The link provided in the post is a counterfeit website where visitors are asked to provide payment details to cover shipping costs.\u00a0 In another example, one consumer\u00a0reported\u00a0ordering \u201cOprah Winfrey\u2019s keto gummy bear supplements\u201d after seeing a phony endorsement. They explained: \u201cThe ad showed Oprah\u2019s face and featured her explaining the product and offering a first-time buyer discount of buy one bottle for $49 and get a second one free. I clicked on the link and put in my order. The next morning, I received an email stating my order had been processed for $198!\u201d The company denied the customer a refund and shipped the product anyway. Upon arrival, they found the gummies were from a company that had no affiliation with Oprah Winfrey.<\/p>\n Q.\u00a0 How can people spot these scams?<\/strong><\/p>\n Understand how AI-generated images work.<\/strong>\u00a0With AI image generators, you can type in a few words describing the image you want to be created, and the AI generates an image based on your text. It\u2019s valuable technology, but scammers can abuse it to create images to back up their stories, products, or outright lies. The point? Don\u2019t assume a photo is proof that something is trustworthy.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n Know that scammers often impersonate celebrities<\/strong>.Don\u2019t assume celebrity posts, images, or videos are legitimate until you verify that they came from an official source. Just because something is shared widely on social media does not mean it\u2019s real. Always do your due diligence before you purchase or reshare something you saw on social media.\u00a0\u00a0Look up the celebrity and the brand name and see if there are other legitimates posts with the celebrity and the brand or if scam articles come up.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n Only do business with companies you know you can trust.<\/strong>\u00a0If you have bought from them or worked with them before, that experience will help you know if you can trust the endorsement or not. If you have not worked with the business, look up their reputation. You can search them on Google and BBB.org. On the Better Business Bureau\u2019s website, you can find their rating, if there are any scam reports or alerts filed against them, and if they are BBB-Accredited.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n Q.\u00a0 What should you do if you identify a celebrity scam?<\/strong><\/p>\n Do not click on the ad or go to the website.\u00a0 Instead, report it.\u00a0 If it is on a social media site, you can report it on the site.\u00a0 If it is a website you see, you can report the website to BBB\u2019s scam tracker, to the FTC, and to the FBI\u2019s cybercrime division.<\/p>\n To learn more about this subject, tune into this video podcast<\/strong>.<\/strong><\/p>\n Disclaimer:\u00a0 this material is intended for informational purposes only and does not constitute legal advice.\u00a0 The law varies by jurisdiction and is constantly changing.\u00a0 For legal advice, you should consult a lawyer that can apply the appropriate law to the facts in your case.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.<\/i><\/p>\n\n
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