“Even scarier is that the employee who was tricked was suspicious, not naive, and still fell for it:”
Our reading, the sentence that was checked:
The deepfake scam worked even on an employee who was suspicious rather than naive.
Assessment: Supported Evidence as of
Where and when Gary Marcus wrote it
Marcus on AI, Deepfaked Shit is Getting Real, paragraph 4.
- Said
- Source observed
- live page, full text, public
- Evidence as of
- the cutoff for this assessment
- Assessment recorded
- assessment marcus-deepfaked-shit-is-getting-real-755531-a1
We recorded 5 claims from this post. See every claim from this post.
The wording above is the version this site observed on 2026-10-29. The source may have been edited after 2024-02-04. This page does not claim the wording was captured then.
What the claim commits to
- Kind
- Observation
- Deadline, as the speaker wrote it
- None stated. This site does not add one.
- Deadline state when assessed
- No horizon
- Deadline state on 2026-10-29
- No horizon (the release’s reference date)
From the speaker
- the employee who was tricked
- was suspicious, not naive
- and still fell for it
Our interpretation
- The claim concerns the employee in the same January 2024 incident referenced by the linked CNN report.
- The ordinary reading is that the employee initially suspected a scam but was subsequently persuaded and transferred funds.
- Read 'not naive' as emphasis on that initial suspicion, not a testable claim about the employee's general character or professional competence.
Counts as supported if: Reliable accounts document initial suspicion about the approach, followed by the employee being persuaded by the apparent colleagues and authorizing fraudulent transfers.
Counts as contradicted if: Reliable accounts establish that the employee had no initial suspicion, or did not subsequently fall for the scheme.
Retrospective: these criteria were written after the outcome was public.
Current assessment
Was it true for the period described?
Outcome: Supported
The dated evidence matches what the claim committed to, under the criteria frozen before grading.
Scored on a plain reading. The speaker named no measure for this claim, so it was judged on the reading an informed reader would take, stated below under our interpretation. Both reviews had to find that reading fair.
- Evidence as of
- Deadline state when assessed
- No horizon
- Assessment recorded
- Policy version
- 2026-10-28.7
Rationale
CNN explicitly reports that the employee initially suspected phishing, then set aside those doubts because the people on the video appeared to be familiar colleagues, and transferred the money. This supports the ordinary reading that the scam succeeded despite initial suspicion. It does not establish a broader judgment that the employee was generally incapable of naivety.
Limitations
- The account of suspicion comes through police reporting, rather than a direct employee interview.
- Support applies to initial suspicion followed by deception, not a general personality assessment or continued suspicion during payment.
Evidence (1 item)
Supports the claim: CNN,
had grown suspicious
Why it matters here: CNN attributes initial suspicion to police superintendent Baron Chan. The following passages explain that the employee suspected phishing, set aside those doubts after seeing apparent colleagues, and agreed to transfer the money.
- Publisher
- CNN
- Kind of source
- News report
- Describes events of
- Public from
Where it was said (1)
Said once in the sources this register covers.
: Marcus on AI, Deepfaked Shit is Getting Real
Even scarier is that the employee who was tricked was suspicious, not naive, and still fell for it:
- Where
- paragraph 4
- Published
- 2024-02-04
- Source observed
- , live page
- Access
- full text, public
History
Assessment versions
- Assessment marcus-deepfaked-shit-is-getting-real-755531-a1: Current. Outcome: Supported. Evidence as of 2026-10-28. Public date not recorded.
Recorded events
Assessment publishedBy this site
First assessment published after both reviews and the final-text check passed.
About assessment marcus-deepfaked-shit-is-getting-real-755531-a1.