Honduras: Criterio.hn's fact-check desk finds three Facebook videos altered with AI in which plastic surgeon Emec Cherenfant appears to promote a home remedy for prostatitis; he says scammers keep using his name and image
El Mirón, the verification section of Criterio.hn, reported on 30 September 2026 that it found three videos on a Facebook profile, altered in image and audio, that use the image of the plastic and reconstructive surgeon Emec Cherenfant to offer a remedy for prostatitis and related problems. In the videos his artificial image says he helped former footballers beat prostatitis without surgery and invites viewers to write to him on WhatsApp. El Mirón says the manipulation is evident from the vocabulary, voice and body movements and that the detector ZeroGPT flagged the videos as AI-made. The hospital where he offers his services told El Mirón the advertising is deceptive. Cherenfant said he has nothing to do with prostate treatment, that scammers repeatedly use his name and image, and that he filed a complaint with the Ministerio Público two years ago. 'Son estafadores. No se dejen engañar, es pura inteligencia artificial', he said. No buyer losses are reported.
- AI system
- Unidentified video tool
- Occurred
- Event date unknown
- Reported
- 30 September 2026
- Event location
- Unknown
- What the AI did
- Depicted or impersonated the person
- Reported harm
- Reputational Harm
- Whose AI use
- Someone else’s AI use
- Setting
- Work · Health
- Evidence
- AI involvement reported · Causal attribution alleged · 1 source
- 4 claims: 4 reported. 4 open questions
- People reported harmed
- 1 person
AI system as recorded: Three Facebook videos 'manipulados con IA' showing the surgeon's altered image and a false voice promoting a prostatitis remedy (Criterio.hn El Mirón, which ran them through ZeroGPT); the generation tool and the profile's operators are not identified
What Happened
Criterio.hn (Tegucigalpa, 30 September 2026) reports that its verification section El Mirón found three videos, altered in image and audio, posted on a Facebook profile and using the image of Cherenfant, a surgeon of Cameroonian origin naturalised in Honduras and known for his television programme 'Doctor 5-04'. In the videos he appears to give medical advice on prostatitis, urinary problems and sexual dysfunction. Two of the videos show him on the cover alongside the former footballers Amado Guevara and Jorge Samuel Caballero; in the third, a man kneeling on a stretcher is presented as Caballero with prostate cancer while Cherenfant holds a scalpel. The artificial image of Cherenfant says he helped his footballer friends beat prostatitis without surgery with a remedy taken at home, and tells viewers to write to him on WhatsApp without giving a number. El Mirón says the manipulation is evident from the vocabulary, voice variations and unusual body movements, and that ZeroGPT detected the first video as AI-made, said the second 'genera poca confianza' because of its doctored content created with AI, and confirmed the third as AI-made. The WhatsApp service of Hospital San Jorge, where Cherenfant offers his services, told El Mirón the advertising is deceptive and that a urologist should treat prostate conditions. Cherenfant told El Mirón that he is a plastic surgeon with nothing to do with prostate, joint, eye or impotence treatments, that he has long been linked to such products by scammers, and that he filed a complaint with the Ministerio Público two years ago so as not to be associated with harm to people who fall for the scams. He said: 'No quiero que alguien algún día se muera por un medicamento de estos y que asocien al doctor Cherenfant a esa muerte.' He confirmed he does not promote any product online.
Reported harm
AI-altered videos showed the surgeon promoting a prostatitis remedy outside his specialty; he says scammers repeatedly misuse his name and image and fears being associated with harm to people who buy such products (his interview with Criterio.hn El Mirón).
Outcome
UnknownCriterio.hn's El Mirón published its verification on 30 September 2026; messages it sent to the Facebook profile from 25 September went unanswered. Cherenfant says he filed a complaint with the Ministerio Público two years earlier about the recurring scams using his image; no action on these three videos (takedown, complaint, investigation) is reported.
What remains unknown
- When the three videos were posted and how widely they circulated.
- Whether anyone bought the remedy or was harmed by it.
- Whether a takedown or new complaint followed for these videos.
- Which tool generated the videos, and how ZeroGPT was applied to video.
What the evidence supports
AI involvement: reported. Criterio.hn's El Mirón concludes that the three videos are false because they were created with AI by scammers ('fueron creados con IA por estafadores'), describes his 'imagen artificial' and a false voice, and reports that ZeroGPT flagged the first and third videos as AI-made and said the second 'genera poca confianza, por su contenido amañado creado con IA'. ZeroGPT is mainly known as a text detector and the outlet does not explain how it was applied to video, so the detector result is recorded as the outlet's report. Cherenfant calls the content 'pura inteligencia artificial'. The researcher did not inspect the videos and no generation tool is named. The videos depicted him (depicted_or_impersonated).
4 claims: 4 reported. What the statuses mean
Reported El Mirón found three videos on a Facebook profile, altered in image and audio, that use Cherenfant's image to give advice on prostatitis and related conditions.
Causal attribution. The outlet's verification; the researcher did not view the videos.
- criterio.hn(opens in new tab) supports · Spanish
'El Mirón, la sección de verificación de Criterio.hn, encontró tres videos alterados en imagen y audio, posteados en un perfil de Facebook, en el cual utilizan la imagen del doctor Cherenfant.'
- criterio.hn(opens in new tab) supports · Spanish
'En los videos, la imagen artificial de Cherenfant señala que ayudó a sus amigos, los futbolistas Guevara y caballero, a vencer la prostatitis, sin necesidad de cirugía, con un remedio, el cual se puede consumir en casa, sin visitar hospitales.'
Reported El Mirón reports that ZeroGPT detected the video with Amado Guevara as created with artificial intelligence and confirmed the third video as an AI product.
Causal attribution. Detector output as reported by the outlet; the method is not described.
- criterio.hn(opens in new tab) supports · Spanish
'ZeroGPT detectó las inconsistencias en el video en el cual aparecen Emec Cherenfant y Amado Guevara y detectó se creó con inteligencia artificial.'
- criterio.hn(opens in new tab) supports · Spanish
'ZeroGPT confirmó también que este video es producto de la IA.'
Reported Hospital San Jorge, where Cherenfant offers his services, told El Mirón by WhatsApp that the advertising is deceptive.
Causal attribution. The hospital's reply as reported by the outlet.
- criterio.hn(opens in new tab) supports · Spanish
'En el chat, nos respondieron que la publicidad es engañosa y que es un urólogo quien debe atender enfermedades relacionadas con la próstata.'
Reported Cherenfant said he has nothing to do with prostate treatment, that scammers repeatedly use his name and image, and that he filed a complaint with the Ministerio Público two years ago.
Causal attribution. His own account; the earlier complaint concerns the recurring scams in general and the source does not say when these three videos were first posted.
- criterio.hn(opens in new tab) supports · Spanish
'No tengo nada que ver con las articulaciones, nada que ver con la próstata, nada que ver con la visión, con los ojos, no tengo nada que ver con la impotencia sexual'
- criterio.hn(opens in new tab) supports · Spanish
'señaló que hace dos años presentó una denuncia ante el Ministerio Público, para evitar ser asociado con las consecuencias que puedan pasar personas que caigan en la red de estafas.'
- criterio.hn(opens in new tab) supports · Spanish
'No quiero que alguien algún día se muera por un medicamento de estos y que asocien al doctor Cherenfant a esa muerte. Conozca a su cirujano. Son estafadores. No se dejen engañar, es pura inteligencia artificial'
- criterio.hn(opens in new tab) supports · Spanish
'hay un grupo de estafadores que no se cansan de utilizar su nombre e imagen para vender productos que ni siquiera conoce.'
Sources
1 source inspected. Sources that repeat one account do not corroborate each other.
- Criterio.hn (El Mirón), 30 September 2026: Emec Cherenfant advierte estafas con videos de IA que utilizan su imagen(opens in new tab)
s1 · criterio.hn · Fact check · Spanish · Inspected · 30 September 2026 · Primary
How the sources were read, and where the events happened
Read live in Spanish on 2026-10-01 (Criterio.hn, El Mirón verification section, 30 September 2026), including the outlet's interview with Cherenfant. Researcher translation. Applies to s1.
Event countries: Unknown. Affected-person countries: Honduras. Court countries: Unknown.
Criterio.hn describes him as naturalised Honduran ('nacionalizado hondureño'), known in Honduras for his TV programme, and offering his services at Hospital San Jorge. The videos were posted on a Facebook profile whose location is not stated, so no event country is recorded.
Reviewed for publication 2026-10-01: Published under the 2026-09-15 charter as a core case: videos that a fact-check desk describes as AI-altered depicted the surgeon promoting a remedy outside his specialty, and he describes the misuse in his own words. He is a public figure and is named as the source does. One source, a fact-check that includes his interview; the videos were not inspected by the researcher.
People described
Emec Cherenfant, plastic and reconstructive surgeon known for the TV programme 'Doctor 5-04' (public figure speaking publicly about his own case)
People reported harmed in this case
1 person
0 AI participants · 1 other person harmed
One person, Emec Cherenfant (Criterio.hn). The former footballers shown on the video covers are not counted because no harm to them is reported, and no viewer is reported deceived. Exact 1.
Counted once within this case. The same person may appear in other cases. This count does not establish AI causation.
Tags
Cite this case
Compiled per our published methodology: verification statuses, sourcing standards, and corrections process.
APA
NOPE. (2026). Honduras: Criterio.hn's fact-check desk finds three Facebook videos altered with AI in which plastic surgeon Emec Cherenfant appears to promote a home remedy for prostatitis; he says scammers keep using his name and image. AI incidents. https://nope.net/incidents/2026-honduras-surgeon-emec-cherenfant-ai-altered-facebook-videos-prostate-remedy
BibTeX
@misc{2026_honduras_surgeon_emec_cherenfant_ai_altered_facebook_videos_prostate_remedy,
title = {Honduras: Criterio.hn's fact-check desk finds three Facebook videos altered with AI in which plastic surgeon Emec Cherenfant appears to promote a home remedy for prostatitis; he says scammers keep using his name and image},
author = {NOPE},
year = {2026},
howpublished = {AI incidents},
url = {https://nope.net/incidents/2026-honduras-surgeon-emec-cherenfant-ai-altered-facebook-videos-prostate-remedy}
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