Realistic deepfakes are leaving the public “at the mercy of scammers”, a consumer group has warned, after an experiment revealed hundreds of adults were unable to identify AI-generated content.
Consumer champion Which? is now urging the Government to ensure regulator Ofcom can take decisive action against technology companies that fail to block these fraudulent schemes.
The warning follows a Which? survey of 514 adults, who were shown a mix of AI deepfakes and real videos and asked to identify the genuine content.
Seven in 10 failed to correctly distinguish all the real and fake videos, with 8% getting every one wrong and 21% only managing to identify a single correct clip.
One particularly convincing deepfake depicted Boots staff promoting an unlicensed weight loss product.
A spokesperson for the health and beauty retailer said: “These adverts are fake and we urge customers to be vigilant.
“We proactively monitor for this type of content on social media and report any we identify to the platform owners and request that they are urgently removed.”
The videos were also shown to experts at Kingston University who also failed to correctly identify all the content.
Half of the survey participants who use social media said they believe they see deepfake videos at least once a day.
Global tech strategists Juniper Research estimates social media companies made nearly £3.8 billion in 2025 from scam ads in Europe alone.
Which? said the Home Office’s fraud strategy, published earlier this year, will fail to stop scams reaching people to begin with.
The watchdog urged the Government to ensure Ofcom takes action against tech firms which do not block scams by implementing “robust codes of practice” in the Online Safety Act.
Rocio Concha, Which? head of policy and advocacy, said: “Our investigation into deepfakes on social media shows the public – and even experts – are increasingly at the mercy of scammers exploiting inadequate security on social media platforms.
“This is troubling as we believe the tech giants who profit from scams on their platforms will not take enough action against fraudsters unless they are legally compelled to do so.
“Ofcom must stop kicking the can down the road and implement the Online Safety Act’s measures on fraudulent advertising as soon as possible and the Government must ensure that it does so urgently and robustly.”
The polling was carried out by Deltapoll between March 6 and 9.
A Government spokesperson said: “Scammers who trick people into parting with their money are committing a criminal offence and should expect to be punished. This Government is backing words with action, delivering £79 million this year to tackle fraud head-on.
“We’ve published a Fraud Strategy to protect consumers and disrupt criminal networks. But platforms also have a responsibility to ensure their sites are not providing a forum for material intended to scam the public.
“Under the Online Safety Act, services that allow users to upload content or interact with others, including social media platforms, must proactively tackle illegal fraudulent content. This includes fraud by false representation and scam ads, whether shared or generated by users – or face consequences.”
