With virtual scammers stealing her image and even her voice, Nathalie Simard warns her admirers to be careful. “I’ve never used these products to lose weight and there are no miracle pills,” says the annoyed and scared singer.
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For the past three years, Nathalie Simard has been battling scammers who steal her image (on photos and videos) to sell “supposed slimming capsules” to internet users.
The 54-year-old artist has tried everything: media outings, TV interviews, posts and videos on his social media. When she and her team manage to shut down a fake account, another one appears as if by magic and everything has to start over.
Photos Facebook Nathalie Simard
Stealing his picture and voice
Last Saturday, the singer released a lengthy video (which has garnered nearly 7,000 views and 4,300 likes so far) in which she expresses her desperation. She urges the public to exercise caution online.
Because now, with the help of artificial intelligence, fraudsters use his voice in addition to his face; This gives false advertising an increasingly worrying aspect. Such was the case recently with presenter Anne-Marie Dussault, whose image and voice were manipulated to boast of “lottery games that would make people millionaires”.
“With ‘Get me out of here’ it got out of hand,” Nathalie Simard tells the Journal. Scammers use my identity to scam people. I find this unacceptable and serious and now they are using my voice with artificial intelligence! It scares me, I find it worrying and it can have serious consequences.”
Despite his warnings, dozens of people write to him each week after several hundred dollars were stolen from him by these untraceable criminals.
The finalist, who won the hearts of Quebec (again) with her participation in the first season of the show Sortez-moi d’ici, wants to remind the public that four years ago she lost a lot of weight after undergoing bariatric surgery and that she has never used these so-called slimming products.
public awareness
Nathalie Simard reported the whole thing to the police. She was advised to file a complaint with the Canadian Anti-Fraud Centre, which she will do.
“There is nothing the authorities can do to help us, even if it is criminal. I can understand that there are more important files. But the only option we have is to inform the population as much as possible and share videos like mine to raise awareness,” said the singer, who will release her album Mon Noël next October, well packaged in her magazine Simplement with Natalie.
“I’m not telling you the time I lost out of love and compassion for my fans!” I’m no longer able to tell them I got it. “It hurts me for my audience who I love, and so does all the artists who are increasingly likely to experience it, like Michel Charette, Isabelle Huot and Ève-Marie Lortie,” she adds.
Comedian Katherine Levac and singer Ariane Moffatt have also experienced — and denounced — the same ordeal online.
– A clip from an upcoming episode of the investigative show I will be dedicated to this scourge of online scammers posing as people known to be selling “slimming products”.