A video advertisement featuring internist and cardiologist Dr. Antonio “Tony” Leachon talking about a “revolutionary drug” for prostatitis is fake. An existing video of his was altered using artificial intelligence (AI).
Posted on Dec. 27 on Facebook (FB) and continuing to make the rounds this January, the video was made to look like a news report, imitating the layout of ABS-CBN News Channel (ANC). The first two and a half minutes of the clip show Leachon in an interview supposedly promoting the “affordable” prostatitis cure.
“Leachon” can be heard saying:
“My name is Tony Leachon. I am the man who invented the cure for malaria. And today I’m here again to rid the world of another terrible disease … There is a method that works faster and more effectively. It helps you get rid of prostatitis in a few weeks without doctors and expensive drugs.
Pharmaceutical companies continue to sell expensive drugs that only mask the symptoms but do not cure. But if you don’t make the right decision now, the consequences could be irreversible. You need to act to avoid the worst case scenario. More than 540,000 men have already regained their health, potency and self-confidence thanks to this revolutionary drug.
Our clinic is successfully practicing remote treatment with the help of this drug in connection with which we hold a promotion and provide a discount to our patients who followed the link below the video.”
This is yet another example of a deepfake to sell health products. Leachon is not endorsing any product and has repeatedly disowned fraudulent ads that use his face and name.
VERA Files Fact Check has previously debunked the other fake “Leachon” ads, which likewise used AI to defraud netizens.
The manipulated clip was sourced from Leachon’s Salamat Dok interview about hypertension uploaded on Nov. 17, 2019. He never mentioned anything about prostatitis nor a cure for it.
AI was used to clone Leachon’s voice and sync his mouth movements to the voice cloning.
The ad invites netizens to visit a bogus website with the domain name AKELAHORMESCLADE.FUN. It imitates NowServing, a local mobile app that connects patients to doctors. The fake webpage collects patients’ details supposedly for their consultation with a certain doctor.
The fake ad posted by the FB page Sorry morry4 (created on Oct. 8, 2024) garnered 85 reactions, 18 comments, 14 shares and 41,000 views.
Learn more about deepfakes and how to detect them by watching VERA Files’ yearender.
