c/deep-fake-detectives

The hand movement trick people keep missing

I kept seeing people say look at the eyes for blinking, but last week I noticed a deep fake of a politician where the hands moved in perfect sync with the voice but the fingers never overlapped each other, so now I check that first and it's caught three fakes already how do you spot hand issues?

Finally spotted my first deep fake after 4 months of training

I was watching a political interview from last Tuesday and noticed the person's breathing pattern stopped for a solid 3 seconds while they were still talking. It took me about 4 months of studying this stuff on YouTube and here to catch one in the wild. Has anyone else found breathing glitches to be the most reliable tell?

A comment on my lip sync video made me rethink my whole setup

I posted a cover song video last month and someone pointed out the audio was 0.2 seconds off from my mouth movements... I brushed it off at first but then watched it back and yeah, it was super noticeable. Turns out my phone's built in mic has a slight delay when I record in my car. I switched to a cheap lav mic and started syncing manually in a free editor after 3 takes. Has anyone else caught timing issues in their own posts that you just didn't see before?

That AI Obama video from 2022 taught me one weird trick for spotting fakes

I was looking back at old deep fakes last week, specifically that Obama public service announcement from March 2022. Watch the eyes during blinking - real people blink naturally but the AI version had a 0.3 second delay between each blink that looked robotic. Has anyone else noticed timing issues with eye movements in these newer videos?

TIL my eye for spotting lip sync errors was totally wrong

I was in a deep fake detective group on Discord last month and someone pointed out I was always looking at the wrong part of the mouth. They said I should focus on the teeth and tongue movement instead of the lips themselves. I tried it on a viral video of a politician giving a speech and suddenly I could see the mismatch clear as day. Has anyone else realized they were missing something obvious like this for ages?

Had to choose between checking a deep fake by eye or using a detection app last week

A family member sent me a video of a politician saying something pretty outrageous. I spent about 20 minutes looking at the lip sync and lighting myself but couldn't decide if it was real. Then I ran it through a free detection tool and it showed a 94% chance of being fake. The app caught weird pixel glitches around the jaw that I missed completely. Has anyone else found detection software more reliable than just watching carefully?

Spotted a deep fake of a local weatherman last night that was almost perfect

I saw a clip on Facebook where our channel 8 weather guy was talking about a tornado warning, but his mouth movements seemed off by about half a second compared to the audio. Turns out my buddy who edits video pointed out the lighting on his face was wrong for the studio setup they've used for 10 years. How do you guys check for audio lag mismatches without using expensive software?

Got fooled by a deepfake audio of my own boss last week

I got a voicemail from my head chef saying the schedule changed and I should come in 2 hours late. It sounded exactly like him down to his grumpy tone, so I showed up late and got chewed out. How do you guys verify audio calls without sounding paranoid?

That week I spotted 3 deep fakes in a row and nobody believed me until the news broke

Dropped $200 on a deep fake detection tool and it caught me slipping

I paid $200 for a software that scans video metadata and facial movement patterns. It flagged a clip I thought was real as a deep fake, and I was mad until I checked the source. Turns out the video was from a known faking site, so the tool saved me from posting garbage. But now I wonder if I'm just trusting a black box too much. Has anyone else paid for detection tools and found they mess up on something obvious?

Blew $40 on a deep fake detector app that was just a filter

I downloaded this app called "RealCheck" after seeing it advertised on TikTok. It claimed to scan videos and tell you if they were AI generated. After paying $40 for the full version, I tested it on a clearly fake video of Tom Cruise and it said it was 95% real. Then I ran it on a real clip of my dog and it flagged it as fake. Total junk. Has anyone found a free tool online that actually works for spotting these things?

That comment about lip sync being too perfect changed how I check videos

Someone pointed out that in real speech people's lips are slightly out of sync with audio like 5-10% of the time, so if every single lip movement matches perfectly it's probably fake. Now I watch for that tiny delay on purpose and caught a deepfake ad from a major brand last week have any of you tried looking for oversync instead of just the usual artifacts?

That one bad week of AI lip sync videos messed me up

Last Tuesday I saw three separate deep fakes of politicians giving interviews. The mouth movements were off by half a second. Then Wednesday a fake of a celebrity chef doing an ad popped up. The lighting on their face didn't match the background. By Friday I was double checking everything with a audio sync tool. Has anyone else had a stretch where you spotted fakes nonstop for days?

TIL the first deep fake I ever fell for was a Tom Cruise TikTok from over two years ago

I went back and compared it to his real interviews last week and the biggest tell was the way his eyes blinked with no natural symmetry, which nobody was pointing out back then.

The lip-sync lag in that political speech - is it bad encoding or a deep fake?

I watched this mayor's speech from 2018 and the 2023 version side by side. In the old one, his lips match the audio perfectly. The new one has this half-second delay on every 'p' and 'b' sound. Could be a compression artifact from the streaming service. Or maybe someone swapped the mouth movements. What do you think causes that specific off-sync on plosives?

Visited a museum exhibit on media history and saw a 1920s photo that was clearly doctored

Finally spotted a deepfake in under 30 seconds after months of practice

Last month I was scrolling through a random political clip on YouTube, the one where a candidate says something wild about taxes. Three years ago I would have just believed it and moved on, but I stopped and looked closer. The lighting on his face didn't match the room behind him, and his mouth movements were just a tiny bit off from the audio. I timed it, and it took me maybe 25 seconds to spot both tells. That felt like a huge win for me, since I used to fall for these things all the time. I mostly learned from watching breakdowns on this forum and a few YouTube channels that show side by side comparisons. Has anyone else had a moment where their training finally clicked in the wild like that?

That viral cat video from last week had some weird ear movements I couldn't ignore

I kept seeing that cat video where the pet seems to react to a sound that wasn't being played. The cat's ears twitched in a way that looked off compared to real cat ear reflexes. I slowed it down frame by frame and noticed the ear movement lagged behind the supposed audio cue by about 15 frames. Real cat ears move faster and more fluidly. That plus the weird shadow under the cat's chin made me pretty sure it was a deep fake. Has anyone else caught odd animal behaviors in these fakes?

That time my uncle's old VHS tape had a before-and-after that fooled me for a decade

I was digging through some old boxes in my dad's garage last Saturday and found a VHS tape labeled 'Family Reunion 1998.' I popped it in an old player I still keep around and watched a clip of my uncle Bill doing this ridiculous magic trick where he made a coin disappear. The tape cut out for a second, then came back with him holding the coin again. For years I thought he was some kind of amateur magician. But last week I watched it again and noticed something weird. The lighting in the room changed between cuts, like someone had moved a lamp. The shadows on the wall were totally different. That's when I realized it wasn't real magic, it was just a badly edited video where he probably dropped the coin and picked it up off camera. The before-and-after difference was just a 3 second splice. Has anyone else ever found a fake video in their family's old home movies that they thought was real for years?

Caught a 'news anchor' video that had 18 telltale signs of being fake. But which one matters most?

I finally changed my mind about blurry faces in deep fakes

Last week I was at a meetup in Denver and a guy showed me a video where the person's face was slightly blurry. I always said that blurry faces meant it was fake. But he slowed it down and showed me the lighting matched perfectly and the lip sync was dead on. That video was actually real, it was just shot on an old phone. Now I don't jump to conclusions about blurry faces anymore. Has anyone else had a go-to sign that turned out to be wrong?

Wasted $150 on a 'deep fake detector' app that was completely useless

I bought this app called DeepGuardian last month because it claimed to spot fakes in real time. It flagged a perfectly normal video of my friend talking as 87% fake. Then I ran an obvious deep fake of Tom Cruise on it and it said 22% fake. Total garbage. I contacted support and they never replied. Has anyone else wasted money on one of these scammy detector tools?

That viral 'smudged lip gloss' video got me good for 20 minutes

Last Tuesday I saw this clip of a makeup artist blending lip gloss with her finger and it looked so smooth and natural, I almost shared it before I noticed her finger literally warped through her chin on the third pass. What gave it away was the lighting on her cheek never changing even when she turned her head. Has anyone else been fooled by a beauty tutorial that turned out to be deep faked?

Unpopular opinion: Looking at eye blinks is overrated for spotting deepfakes

Everyone in this group keeps saying check the blink rate, but I compared that method against looking at ear shadows on a bunch of those viral Tom Cruise fakes last month. The lighting on the ears was way more reliable. Blinks change depending on the person's mood or how long they've been filming, but shadows are physics. Has anyone else found a better tell than eyes?

Got a message from a stranger who said my video breakdown saved them from a scam

Someone in my town messaging me on Facebook said a deep fake of their 'cousin' asked for $500 for bail but they remembered the weird eye blink pattern from my post and called them out instead. Has anyone else had a real impact like that from just sharing what you know?