Did President-elect Donald Trump announce $6,400 "relief checks" that "any American can qualify for"? No, that's not true: A video on Facebook showing Trump announcing the checks is a deepfake. A link in the post did not direct users to an official government website but rather to a health insurance webpage. As of this publication, the government had not announced a $6,400 relief check.
The claim appeared in a video on Facebook on November 18, 2024, (archived here) with a caption that read:
Biden Gives $6400 Check For FREE 🇺🇸💵
Every American is entitled to this cash benefit
This means you can have extra money in your pocket every month for gas, groceries and rent
This is what the post looked like on Facebook at the time of writing:
(Source: Facebook screenshot taken Sun Nov 24 12:35:41 2024 UTC)
The video opens with an unseen narrator saying, "Trump just exposed the biggest secret that the Biden administration has been hiding all along."
As a clip of Trump speaking rolls, a Trump-like voice says:
It's time to expose the lies they have been hiding from you because Americans deserve their $6,400 relief checks they were supposed to get months ago.
These crooked liberal politicians should be ashamed of themselves for not making it public that there is $6,400 in funds for every American to claim. Therefore, I want to make it public that any American can qualify for this relief program.
It is so easy to qualify for and all you have to do is practically take a 30 second quiz on the official site and you'll be getting your relief checks within 24 hours. Just be mindful that the enrollment period for this program ends soon.
Video is a deepfake
There are clear indications that this video is a deepfake, such as lip-syncing errors -- the words spoken do not match movement of the lips, with delays in lip movements in relation to the words being said.
Also there are facial inconsistencies. The mouth moves unnaturally and has teeth that appear cartoon-like and intensely white. Secondly, eyebrows and frown lines -- the vertical lines between the eyebrows -- never move but appear stagnant throughout the entire clip.
Lead Stories ran a 17-second clip of the video showing only Trump's talking head through the online AI detection tool Hive Moderation. It determined the clip was 98.6 percent "likely to contain AI-generated or deepfake content," as shown below in a screenshot of the results:
(Source: Hive screenshot taken Mon Nov 25 15:01:21 2024 UTC)
Lead Stories uploaded a link to the clip to another AI detection tool, True Media (archived here), which determined that the video showed "substantial evidence of manipulation" of both voice and face. In its "AI Generated Insights," True Media noted that:
The transcript reads like a promotional or scam message rather than a genuine spoken audio. The language is sensational and uses phrases like 'biggest secret,' 'expose the lies,' and 'crooked liberal politicians,' which are typical of clickbait or scam content. The promise of a quick financial reward after taking a '30-second quiz' is a common tactic used in fraudulent schemes. Additionally, the urgency created by phrases like 'enrollment period ends soon' is a common pressure tactic in scams. These elements suggest that the transcript is not from a real spoken audio but rather a fabricated piece designed to deceive.
(Source: True Media screenshot taken Mon Nov 25 15:05:49 2024 UTC)
Switched to health insurance website
At the end of the video, viewers are told to "Tap Below" to claim the check "before it's gone." The "Learn more" button on the video leads to a URL (https://www.ushealthsubsidy.com/healthcare/aca?clickid=67448f6f2bdf457076a9a7ea) that results in a webpage that reads "Access Denied" and "You do not have permission to access this page," (archived here) shown in the screenshot below:
(Source: Website screenshot taken Mon Nov 25 14:56:28 2024 UTC)
When Lead Stories shortened the URL (https://www.ushealthsubsidy.com/), we were redirected to the website (archived here) shown below:
(Source: www.ushealthsubsidy.com screenshot taken Mon Nov 25 13:08:35 2024 UTC)
The website does not have a ".gov" domain, which would indicate that it belongs to an official government organization in the United States, according to the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (archived here).
As the Better Business Bureau notes (archived here), design quality is also a key indicator that a website may be a scam:
... low quality visuals, odd layouts, and poor web design can all be warning signs of a fake website. Before you take action on a site, ask yourself if the design quality measures up to the reputation of the business or person it represents.
According to the IRS (archived here), three stimulus checks were issued: one in 2020 and two in 2021. As of this writing, no fourth stimulus check has been announced.
The U.S. General Services Administration (archived here) and Federal Trade Commission (archived here) have warned against such "free money" scams.
When this was written, PolitiFact and AFP had also reviewed the same claim.
Lead Stories debunked another claim that suggested Trump announced the "relief" checks on the Joe Rogan podcast, which can be read here. Lead Stories has also debunked a claim that President Joe Biden was giving out $6,400 stimulus checks before leaving office, visible here.
Other Lead Stories fact checks involving deepfakes can be viewed here.
