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NOPE
Low reported severity Media Coverage

TV presenter Bettina Tietjen warns on Facebook in September 2026 that fake videos, described by outlets as AI deepfakes, show her advertising a remedy for Alzheimer's, and says scammers are behind them

Bettina Tietjen, host of the 'NDR Talk Show', wrote in a Facebook post on Tuesday 29 September 2026 that videos were apparently circulating in which she advertised a remedy for Alzheimer's. 'Das sind Fake-Videos, dahinter stecken Betrüger', she wrote, asking people not to fall for them. The spot on news agency (via Abendzeitung München) reports that she has nothing to do with the advertised product. MOPO describes the clips as fake AI videos, and spot on news and TAG24 say they are apparently deepfakes made or altered with artificial intelligence. No report says whether anyone bought the product, and no complaint or takedown is reported.

AI system
Unidentified video tool (suspected)
Occurred
Sept 2026
Reported
29 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 suspected · Causal attribution supported · 3 sources, 1 underlying account
3 claims: 3 reported. 4 open questions
People reported harmed
1 person

AI system as recorded: Fake videos in which the presenter appears to advertise an Alzheimer's remedy, described by MOPO as AI videos and by spot on news and TAG24 as apparent deepfakes; the tool and operators are not identified

What Happened

According to the spot on news agency (published by Abendzeitung München, 30 September 2026), Tietjen urgently warned her fans about fake clips in which she appears to advertise a remedy for Alzheimer's. In a Facebook post on Tuesday, written entirely in capitals, she stated: 'Das sind Fake-Videos, dahinter stecken Betrüger', and asked: 'Bitte auf keinen Fall darauf hereinfallen!' The agency says the videos are presumably deepfakes and that she has nothing to do with the advertised preparation. TAG24 (30 September 2026) quotes her post as 'Offenbar sind Videos von mir in Umlauf, in denen ich für Mittel gegen Alzheimer werbe' and says the videos create the false impression that she recommends the medicine; it describes them as apparently deepfakes made or heavily altered with AI. MOPO writes that she became a victim of fake AI videos and that a video of her advertising an Alzheimer's remedy is circulating on social media, which she told her Facebook followers was faked. The outlets also mention fake images of her circulated in early 2024, a separate earlier episode not covered by this case.

Reported harm

Fake videos showed the presenter endorsing an Alzheimer's remedy she has nothing to do with, and she had to warn the public that scammers were behind them (her Facebook post, relayed by spot on news, TAG24 and MOPO).

Outcome

Unknown

Tietjen warned her followers in a Facebook post on 29 September 2026; spot on news, MOPO, TAG24 and the Hamburger Abendblatt reported it on 29 and 30 September 2026. No police complaint, platform takedown, seller or buyer loss is reported.

What remains unknown

  • On which platforms the videos ran and how widely they were seen.
  • Whether anyone bought the advertised product or lost money.
  • Whether a complaint or takedown followed.
  • Which tool was used.

What the evidence supports

AI involvement: suspected. MOPO states that she became a victim of fake AI videos ('gefälschten KI-Videos'); spot on news ('wohl um sogenannte Deepfakes') and TAG24 ('offenbar um sogenannte Deepfakes') hedge the AI attribution. Her quoted Facebook words call them fake videos without mentioning AI. The videos were not inspected and no tool is named. The videos depicted her (depicted_or_impersonated).

3 claims: 3 reported. What the statuses mean

Reported In a Facebook post on Tuesday 29 September 2026, Tietjen said that fake videos in which she appears to advertise a remedy for Alzheimer's were circulating, that scammers were behind them, and asked people not to fall for them.

Causal attribution. Her own account as relayed by the outlets; the videos were not inspected.

  • abendzeitung-muenchen.de(opens in new tab) supports · German
    'In den Clips scheint die Moderatorin für ein Mittel gegen Alzheimer zu werben. "Das sind Fake-Videos, dahinter stecken Betrüger", stellte Tietjen am Dienstag in einem Facebook-Beitrag klar'
  • tag24.de(opens in new tab) supports · German
    '"Offenbar sind Videos von mir in Umlauf, in denen ich für Mittel gegen Alzheimer werbe", schreibt die "NDR Talk Show"-Gastgeberin in einem Beitrag auf Facebook.'
  • abendzeitung-muenchen.de(opens in new tab) supports · German
    'Ihre Bitte an alle, denen die Aufnahmen begegnen: "Bitte auf keinen Fall darauf hereinfallen!"'
Reported The outlets describe the videos as made with AI: MOPO says she became a victim of fake AI videos, while spot on news and TAG24 say they are apparently deepfakes.

Causal attribution. The outlets' characterisation; her quoted words do not mention AI.

  • mopo.de(opens in new tab) supports · German
    'Tietjen wurde Opfer von gefälschten KI-Videos, sogenannten „Deepfakes“.'
  • tag24.de(opens in new tab) supports · German
    'Bei den Videos handelt es sich offenbar um sogenannte Deepfakes, also täuschend echte Inhalte, die mithilfe Künstlicher Intelligenz erstellt oder stark verändert wurden.'
  • abendzeitung-muenchen.de(opens in new tab) supports · German
    'Bei den Videos handelt es sich wohl um sogenannte Deepfakes.'
Reported According to spot on news, she has nothing to do with the advertised product.

Causal attribution. Reported in indirect speech by the agency.

Sources

3 sources inspected, from 1 underlying account. Sources that repeat one account do not corroborate each other.

How the sources were read, and where the events happened

Read live in German on 2026-10-01 (Abendzeitung München, 30 September 2026; automated spot on news agency copy, also carried by viply and trendmagazin). Relays her Facebook post. Researcher translation. Applies to s1.

Read live in German on 2026-10-01 (TAG24, 30 September 2026); quotes the same Facebook post. Researcher translation. Applies to s2.

Read live in German on 2026-10-01 (MOPO, 30 September 2026); paraphrases the same Facebook post. Researcher translation. Applies to s3.

Event countries: Unknown. Affected-person countries: Unknown. Court countries: Unknown.

The bodies say the videos circulated on social networks and give Hamburg datelines (TAG24; Hamburger Abendblatt), but none states where the videos were shown or where she lives; no country is inferred from datelines, the outlets or the language.

Reviewed for publication 2026-10-01: Published under the 2026-09-15 charter as a core case: fake videos depicted the presenter advertising an Alzheimer's remedy, and she warned the public in her own Facebook post. She is a public figure and is named as all sources do. One underlying account (her post) relayed by three outlets; the AI element rests on their description, two of them hedged.

People described

Bettina Tietjen, television presenter and host of the 'NDR Talk Show' (public figure speaking publicly about her own case)

People reported harmed in this case

1 person

0 AI participants · 1 other person harmed

One person, Bettina Tietjen (spot on news via Abendzeitung München; TAG24; MOPO). Viewers are not counted because no source reports anyone deceived. Exact 1.

Counted once within this case. The same person may appear in other cases. This count does not establish AI causation.

Tags

#deepfakes#celebrity-deepfake#fake-advertisement#health-product-scam#tv-presenter#german-language

Cite this case

Compiled per our published methodology: verification statuses, sourcing standards, and corrections process.

APA

NOPE. (2026). TV presenter Bettina Tietjen warns on Facebook in September 2026 that fake videos, described by outlets as AI deepfakes, show her advertising a remedy for Alzheimer's, and says scammers are behind them. AI incidents. https://nope.net/incidents/2026-presenter-bettina-tietjen-deepfake-videos-advertise-alzheimer-remedy

BibTeX

@misc{2026_presenter_bettina_tietjen_deepfake_videos_advertise_alzheimer_remedy,
  title = {TV presenter Bettina Tietjen warns on Facebook in September 2026 that fake videos, described by outlets as AI deepfakes, show her advertising a remedy for Alzheimer's, and says scammers are behind them},
  author = {NOPE},
  year = {2026},
  howpublished = {AI incidents},
  url = {https://nope.net/incidents/2026-presenter-bettina-tietjen-deepfake-videos-advertise-alzheimer-remedy}
}

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