Matthew Kupfer

When American conservative commentator Tucker Carlson interviewed Russian IT entrepreneur Pavel Durov in April, he had an additional unexpected audience: scammers. After the video was published, a phony Russian-language transcript of the interview tried to attract “investors” to a cryptocurrency scheme that promised monthly earnings of $13,000. That scheme came to VOA’s attention because its creators used a copy of a VOA Russian article page in their attempts to defraud internet users.

New online videos recently investigated by VOA's Russian and Ukrainian services show how artificial intelligence is likely being used to try to create provocative deepfakes that target Ukrainian refugees. In one example, a video appears to be a TV news report about a teenage Ukrainian refugee and her experience studying at a private school in the United States.

A fake American “media outlet” posted a story about Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy buying Adolf Hitler’s car — and it was widely shared in Russian media. The website for the “media outlet” (apparently trying to copy a renowned Seattle Times) was registered about a week ago. The photo was photoshopped and the story is fake. Some researchers connected the website to John Mark Dougan, an American who fled to Russia. A VOA Russian investigative reporter debunked this fake story.