Videos of celebrities Lea Salonga and Sharon Cuneta promoting a “natural” cure for diabetes are fake and manipulated using artificial intelligence (AI).
Separate videos featured the two women reading the same script, word for word, raising red flags over their legitimacy.
Posted on Facebook (FB) on July 14, the two clips featured supposed interviews of Salonga and Cuneta detailing their experiences with diabetes and subsequently, pancreatic cancer.
Their “testimonies” started with them saying:
“All my life I have suffered from type 2 diabetes, I restricted myself with diets. My eyesight was getting worse every year and I felt that the disease was not giving me a chance. Insulin and metformin just eased my suffering but did nothing to fight the disease.”
They then talked about coming across an article about a natural remedy recommended by an unnamed endocrinologist.
“He recommended me this natural remedy which I started using at home and the results were surprisingly fast. This remedy helped me to normalize my blood sugar. Finally, my vision stopped falling and I started seeing again like I did when I was 18 years old. All thanks to an international endocrinology expert who discovered this natural way to treat diabetes in record time.”
Netizens were encouraged to click a link to the supposed article where the doctor talks about the natural treatment.
These are yet again AI-manipulated ads that deceive netizens into visiting a website that sells products or services.
VERA Files Fact Check found, through a reverse image search, that the publisher altered clips from Salonga’s March 12 interview on her experience working in the musical Miss Saigon. It overlaid an AI-generated audio that imitates her voice and manipulated her mouth movements to match the script.
The same techniques – imitating one’s voice and altering their mouth movement – were employed in the Cuneta ad. The altered snippets were from her Feb. 28 vlog on healthy living where she endorsed a health insurance provider but did not mention anything about diabetes or a cure for it.
The two scams directed viewers to a website with the domain name PENALASPOUTGROUP.TOP that promotes an “online course” on “digital transformation,” “computer graphics” and “learning professional skills.”
VERA Files Fact Check has noted a rise in fake ads that use AI to imitate public figures and personalities.
Sharon Cuneta was previously featured in a fraudulent ad for an unregistered cereal product.
One of the posts by the FB page Good Health (created on July 6) garnered 431 reactions, 40 comments, 40 shares and 36,000 views.
