AI video falsely claims US-based Nigerian scientist is promoting heart drug

“I am experiencing headaches and fatigue. Numbness in my limbs and tinnitus. This may be due to cerebral arteriosclerosis and is a sign of stroke. Please seek urgent cerebral vascular treatment!” reads a Facebook post dated May 28, 2024.

The post includes a video of a man calling himself “Dr. Samuel Akilefe” purportedly being interviewed about heart disease by a female Nigerian news anchor.

She appears to be questioning him about the treatment of heart disease and the impact of modern medicine on it.

Those interviewed responded that “fraud is a common practice” in the pharmaceutical industry and that the only treatment available was an unnamed “natural remedy” made from a “unique natural complex based on living plant molecules.”

He apparently added that the product “cleans blood vessels and stabilizes blood pressure for many years.”

“It doesn't have to be taken continuously. After just seven weeks, the vascular network is fully activated and blood pressure will be maintained at 120-80 for the next five years,” he says.

The video's tagline is “Pharmacies are hiding this drug! We can't stay silent any longer!”

The post was published in Arabic by the page “Mohammed Al Hamdan” and has been shared more than 200 times.

The page, which has 2,700 followers, said its transparency record showed it was created on May 10, 2024, and is currently managed from the United States.

But AFP Fact Check found that the video was created by an AI program.

rejection

AFP Fact Check used the InVID-WeVerify tool to extract keyframes from the video and run a reverse image search.

This revealed that the opening part of the video was taken from a video uploaded by AFP to YouTube in 2021. The video shows survivors being rescued from the rubble of a high-rise building in Lagos that collapsed under construction and rushed by ambulance to the hospital (archive available here).

AFP Fact Check was unable to find the original footage of the purported interview between the news anchor and Mr Akilev.

However, a few keyword searches revealed that the man featured in the video is Nigerian-born, US-based Professor Samuel Aquilefe, a pioneer in basic and applied research in science, engineering and medicine (archive available here).

He also serves as chair of the biomedical engineering department at the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center.

Akilev denied ever giving such an interview or promoting any heart medication, and told AFP FactCheck he had filed a complaint about the video with the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI).

“I urge everyone to spread the word about this and have also reported it to the FBI,” Akilev said in an email.

The FBI told AFP FactCheck that it does not comment on “complaints or tips” submitted by the public.

AI clues

Throughout the video, the facial features of Akilev and the female interviewer appear severely distorted, a clear sign of AI manipulation.

Moreover, the studio backdrop is similar to that of the morning show of Nigerian television station TVC News.

James Asuquo, editor of the TVC, told AFP Fact Check that the video did indeed show scenes from the background of the network's morning show but confirmed the video was fake.

“TVC News has not conducted the interview nor broadcast it on any platform. With this information, the general public is alerted to the activities of fraudsters,” he wrote in a message.

Further investigation also revealed that the interviewer in the video bears a resemblance to TVC legal reporter, Kemi Fola Adeyemo.

We extracted the audio from the video and ran it through Loccus.ai, an audio tool that looks for specific forensic signatures left by audio generators.

The results showed that there was a 99% probability that the audio was generated by an AI tool.

AFP FactCheck has created a handy guide with tips for identifying AI-generated content.

Cardiac medications

Embedded in the post is a link to a website promoting “Cordis,” which appears as a small white pill bottle with a red heart label.

According to information on its website, Cordis “normalizes blood pressure immediately after a course of treatment” and “protects the heart from heart attacks and other cardiovascular diseases.”

The product was advertised at a discounted price of 44,990 naira (US$30.2).

AFP FactCheck's check of the website's domain showed it was registered on May 13, 2024, three days before the Facebook page was created (archived here).

A search for Cordis revealed other websites offering the same product at discounted prices in Nigeria (see here , here and here ).

One site included a photo of a label with a list of ingredients and details from Indonesia-based PT SJA Global Cosmindo.

AFP Fact Check's Indonesia bureau contacted the company through its customer service line on Instagram.

During the call, the company denied ever producing Cordis, adding that PT SJA Global Cosmindo only produces cosmetics.

“We are a cosmetics manufacturer, not a pharmaceutical company. We would like to know who is manufacturing this product. It is a counterfeit product using our name. We will not be held responsible if anything happens,” the company said.

Presented with the ingredients list, Martha Gulati, director of preventive cardiology at the Smit Heart Institute at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles, denied the claims of its healing powers.

When asked whether the drug could “activate the vascular network and keep blood pressure at 120 to 80 for the next five years,” Gulati said, “No.”