Beware the SlopDoc: Charité Warns Of AI Videos Advertising Miracle Drugs
Deepfake videos of the hospital's doctors promising "technically impossible" medical solutions are circulating in Berlin.
Friday, March 27
Not at all what the doctor ordered: the latest AI-generated scam to look out for in Berlin is exploiting the medical professionals at Charité, Berlin's prestigious university hospital in Mitte, by using their names and faces to sell miracle-cure medication and promise impossible cures.
In some cases, cybercriminals have manipulated the voice of Charité doctors to get people to believe that the products they're hawking — weight loss patches, diabetes pills, dementia medication, Viagra substitutes — are bona fide medical recommendations.
Beware of warning signs such as... exorbitant prices... emotional manipulation, and unrealistic promises of cures!
“Alzheimer’s reversed!” promises one such deepfake, exposed in BZ on Thursday. The video purports to show Charité neurosurgeon Peter Vajkoczy, a leading brain researcher and professor who often shares educational videos on social media – a fact the scammers likely exploited. Alzheimer’s disease currently has no medical cure, and Vajkoczy only learned of his own supposed medical breakthrough from a patient who saw the ad and grew suspicious.
Another fraudulent commercial offered a medical device that claimed to measure pulse and blood sugar simultaneously, something that Charité spokesperson Markus Heggen called "technically impossible." In other cases, dubious ads use the hospital's logo and names of real employees to suggest authenticity. "The Charité name is being used to suggest a quality standard, and users are being deceived," Heggen told BZ.
The hospital asks anyone who spots a suspicious video to report it to the police, who have a special unit for cybercrime, commenting: "Beware of warning signs such as a missing imprint, exorbitant prices, staged videos, emotional manipulation, and unrealistic promises of cures!"
Tracking the origins of deepfakes, however, can be difficult, making prosecution for their creation an uphill battle — something that's been a big topic of conversation across Germany this week.
