All Chapters of My Bestie's Deepfake Scam Backfires Spectacularly: Chapter 1 - Chapter 10

When I opened my eyes, my best friend, Jessica Morin, was standing by my desk.She waved my student ID in her hand and gave me an apologetic smile. "Demi, could I borrow this? The printers over at the administration building are only available tonight, and I'm still missing two documents for my grad school application."I stared at the card, speechless.Outside, the sky was dim and overcast. The dorm loudspeakers were broadcasting an announcement—the grad school recommendation list would be posted in two days.That meant tonight was the night.In my past life, Jessica had borrowed my student ID on this exact evening.The next morning, a secretly recorded video spread across the entire campus. The person in the video wore a hat, swiped my student ID to enter the archives building, and tampered with the evaluation scores on the computer.The security camera had caught my face. The door logs had matched my student ID. Even the search history on my laptop had been framed as premedit

In the conference room, the college leadership pushed the disciplinary document in front of me."Admit your mistake, and the university might consider letting you stay as a student. If you refuse to cooperate, it becomes a whole different story."I glanced at it.Revocation of recommendation status, a major demerit, and a public apology.Compared to my past life, it truly seemed like an extraordinary act of mercy.Back then, I insisted on calling the police and demanding a full investigation, so the university branded me as difficult. In the end, they not only expelled me but also sent the notice of my disciplinary action to all their partner companies.When I went job hunting, an interviewer recognized me.He laughed right in front of a room full of people. "You had the nerve to tamper with official archives. We would never risk hiring someone like you."I stood outside the office building, the resume in my hands soaked and ruined by the rain.Ethan found me with an umbrella

Nobody spoke.Even the nonstop scrolling comments in the live stream seemed to freeze for a split second.Frankie stared at the giant screen, his expression darkening bit by bit.The video kept playing.On the screen, "Frankie" opened the archive cabinet, retrieved the documents, and sat down at the computer to alter the scores. Every action was identical to the 15-second clip circulating online. The only difference was the face.Alfie leaped to his feet. "Shut it off!"Randy scrambled to hit the controls, but the mouse seemed completely frozen. The video didn't stop.Frankie turned around. "Why shut it off?""Professor Harper, there's clearly something wrong with this surveillance footage."Frankie replied, "When it was Demi's face earlier, you said it passed preliminary verification. Now that it's my face, there's suddenly a problem?"Cold sweat beaded on Alfie's forehead. "That's not what I meant."The murmurs from the audience below grew louder and louder."Which face i

Ethan's tone was far too calm. It was as if he were certain he still held something over me.He turned to the police. "Demi swapped out the lab data without authorization, causing Professor Harper's face to be used in a forged video. She compromised the project just as much."Alfie chimed in immediately, "We can't just hold one side accountable here."I tapped my phone and cast an email onto the big screen.The email had been sent three days ago. The recipients were the lab director and the university's information center."The shared dataset library poses a risk of unauthorized access. Personal images may be used for unauthorized video generation. Requesting immediate suspension of sync permissions."Below it sat the automated system response. "Received. Will process as soon as possible."I turned to Alfie. "The moment I noticed my photos being organized, I filed a risk report right away. The university failed to revoke those sync permissions, so I could only use public intervi

The university restored all my honors along with my graduate recommendation status.Frankie apologized to my parents in person. He offered compensation and even promised to grant me the highest-level scholarship available.I didn't accept it right away. "All I want is a fair investigation and the protection of all students' personal data."Because of this, the lab project underwent a complete audit.The risk report I had submitted ultimately became the foundation for the university to upgrade its facial recognition data management system.My advisor came to find me. "Do you still want to work on facial recognition?"I looked at the two video clips stored on my laptop.One had my face.The other had Frankie's face.They had almost ruined my life once."Yes. But I don't want to research how to make fake faces look more real. I want to expose what's fake."Six months later, I joined a new research team.The video forensics and trace system we developed took first place in the