Spurious AI footage featuring Kayla Megwa used to promote gambling platform

Claim: A Facebook account shared a video showing Kayla Megwa, a journalist, endorsing a get-rich-quick gambling platform exclusive to Nigerians. 

Verdict: False. The video was manipulated using AI, and the journalist’s picture was misused to promote the platform. 

Full Text

Far from just sharing fraudulent links for people to click on, the faces of significant and trusted figures have been used countless times to lure people into falling for phishing scams. Media figures like Kayode Okikiolu and Seun Okinbaloye have been impersonated through AI-generated deepfakes to promote scam narratives. 

In one case, Kayode was featured in a manipulated video endorsing health products and video games, which were convincingly edited to match his voice and appearance. He debunked the claim on his verified X account in December 2023, saying the viral post was fraudulent and artificially generated. Fact-checking platforms have debunked many others. 

Following a string of such deceptive cases, a Facebook account named @Waje-meet all your need shared a video showing Kayla Megwa, a broadcast journalist, promoting a gambling platform. 

In the video, she says, 

“This is an urgent news report. Waje Casino, a new mobile game only for Nigerian residents, is changing people’s lives. It can make you money in six minutes. An unemployed man from Lagos saw the advert on Facebook. He really needed the money because he couldn’t find a job. So he installed the game. After playing for a week straight, his winnings amounted to half a million naira. Currently, 98.9 per cent of players who have installed the app are claiming their winnings.”

Upon closer examination, DUBAWA observed the Channels TV logo on the video and a caption that read, “The Waje Casino: Crazy wins in Nigeria.” This gave the impression that the news outlet was endorsing the platform.

As of June 8, 2025, the post had garnered 740 likes, 38 comments, three shares, and 1,500 views.

Some Facebook users expressed concern in the comments. @Vera Pevi wrote, “Nigeria, why advertise gambling?”

Another user, @Princess Geoffry, questioned the platform’s exclusivity, saying, “Why is it only for Nigerians? You leave your citizens out of it and bring your betting platform here to rip Nigerians off. Why do you bring such things to Nigeria? The plan to destroy Africa won’t work.”

@Deejey deedee, seemingly upset, added: “Putting Channels’ logo on this is not good.”

Several red flags in the video clip, as well as the nature of the game being promoted, prompted DUBAWA to verify it. 

Verification

We first observed that the reporter’s accent and speech pattern were unusual. We also observed that the audio and the lip movements on screen were not synchronised.

DUBAWA searched for the gaming platform and found that Waje Casino does exist. It has an Application (App) available on the Google Play Store and Apple Store. It also runs a website for users who prefer to sign up and play online. 

We scanned the user reviews across these platforms and found numerous comments from individuals who described the App as a scam or shared frustrations about difficulties using it. 

Although we found the Waje Casino app and saw the negative reviews, it didn’t confirm that the Facebook account that shared the claim was directly linked to it. The account may be part of a separate scam using the Waje Casino name, which prompted us to dig further. 

We found that the page was created in November 2024 with only two posts. The connection to the apps and website was established, as the direct link to the platform’s main website was attached to the account’s profile. We saw that no additional links were attached to the video post itself.

To check the video’s veracity, we subjected a screenshot to the InVid forensic feature. The results, via Error Level Analysis (ELA) and  Double Quantisation filters, revealed anomalies in the image’s structure and compression. This indicated that an element had been artificially added or manipulated.

Result from error level analysis

Results from double qualitisation.

We proceeded to analyse the video using deepware.ai, and the results were positive for deepfake detection. The tool flagged the video with a 98% Seferbekov score and an Ensemble score of 93%, both of which indicate that the content is likely AI-generated.

We also examined the footage using the Hiya Deepfake Detector, and it returned a score of 1 out of 100. This strongly suggests that the audio is cooked up.

Conclusion

Our findings reveal that the video’s image was that of Kayla Megwa, a broadcast journalist with Channels TV. Her image was exploited to create artificially generated footage to promote the Waje Casino scheme.