Taylor Swift fans scammed by deepfake endorsement

A number of Taylor Swift fans have reportedly been duped out of hundreds of dollars after responding to a fake AI video of the pop star advertising Le Creuset.

In the advertisements which have been displayed on various social media platforms, the 12-time Grammy Award winner is standing next to the Le Creuset Dutch oven which is worth $180 to $750 (the price varies according to the styles and sizes).

The AI technology has managed to clone Swift's voice where she says how “thrilled” she is to be giving away the free cookware sets if they click on a button and answer a couple of questions, according to The New York Times.

Swifties who clicked on the link were sent to a website that appeared to be legitimate where there were fake reviews and information displayed.

What the Taylor Swift fake AI endorsement looks like that scammed fans.YouTube/KTLA 5 News

Prospective buyers were then asked to pay the “small shipping fee of $9.96," and those who entered their bank details were hit with additional charges and have not received their Le Creuset pot.

Computer science professor Siwei Lyu told The New York Timesthat the ad copy had most likely originated from a text-to-speech platform.

The video clips of Swift that were manipulated appear to originally be from her 73 Questions video with Vogue Magazine from seven years ago in 2016 where she takes viewers on a tour of her Beverly Hills home during the interview.

“These tools are becoming very accessible these days,” he said. "It’s becoming very easy, and that’s why we’re seeing more."

Swifties were perhaps convinced by the scam due to Swift previously expressing her love for Le Creuset cookware - although she has never been an official brand ambassador or endorsed their products.

Swift isn't the first celebrity whose voice has been cloned by AI to be used in scams, as actors Scarlett Johansson and Tom Hanks have also experienced this.

In November, Johansson took legal action against an artificial intelligence app called 'Lisa AI: 90s Yearbook & Avatar' after the actor's voice and face were used in an advert.

“We do not take these things lightly. Per our usual course of action in these circumstances, we will deal with it with all legal remedies that we will have,” the attorney of the Black Widow star told Variety at the time.

While Hanks had to take to Instagram to warn fans that he has not endorsed a dental plan after an AI version of him was used in an ad promotion.

“Beware!!” the 67-year-old wrote on the photo of the AI image. “There’s a video out there promoting some dental plan with an AI version of me.”

“I have nothing to do with it," he added.

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