Face-swapping

Face-swapping is a deepfake technique that replaces one person's face with another's in images or video — increasingly in real time during live calls.

How to recognise

Once a slow, post-production effect, face-swapping can now run live on ordinary hardware, which is what makes it dangerous: an attacker can wear someone else's face during a video meeting or job interview.

It is used for impersonation, fraud, fabricated "evidence," and image-based abuse.

Live face-swaps still have weaknesses. Asking a person on a call to turn their head fully in profile, pass a hand across their face, or change their lighting can cause weaker real-time fakes to break down — though these are stopgaps against current quality, not a lasting strategy.

The durable defence remains verifying identity through independent channels rather than trusting the live image.