Fake or not fake? That is the question. How do you check information for validity to avoid being deceived?

Fake information contains spelling mistakes, linguistic constructions: “famous scientist”, “already known and proven to everyone”, “acquaintance, friend, relative from security service”, “truth disclosures”, “the truth has been revealed”, “we have been deceived”.

Such messages contain an insistent request for dissemination and a call for online and offline actions, compromising public-power institutions. Also, it is worth paying attention to the authority of dissemination sources.

It is worth remembering that these markers do not confirm that the message is fake, but only help to identify a potential threat.

Where fact-checking begins

The direction of work on data verification begins with fact-checking ― a search based on open data. Find the primary source and make sure it is authoritative. Next, stay abstract from cliches and stereotypes.

When working with open data, double-check (verification from two sources) and make sure of the details ― every unit must be provable.

Video verification

To verify a video, you can do a reverse image search, examine context, details and analyze comments.

When verifying, you should remember that video fakes can use mirror image reflection, change the color scheme and contrast, add watermarks and media logos.

Website verification

Verifying the validity of the website begins with the domain ― it may be similar to the original, but contain errors.

The second option is to find out the website age and owner using specialized services, such as “Whois”.

If the website of any long-established organization is created recently, most likely it is fake.

Also, analyze the content of the website. Usually fake websites contain a lot of errors.

Verification of documents

• Check the text for gross errors, fake documents usually contain quite a lot of them.
• Look who signed the document (using image search to find the signature on the Internet). Sometimes a fake creator takes a random signature from public sources and passes it off as a real one.
• Try to find the person’s real signature (documents on the website, internet search) and compare it.
• Compare the designations on the documents (organization name, contact information, etc.)