The battle against scammers rages on more furiously than ever.
It seems like every legitimate advance in AI technology opens another door for nefarious actors to crash through and upend your digital life - either at home or on the job.
According to the boffins at Gen Threat Labs, they detected more than 150,000 deepfake scams in Q4, 2025 alone. New Zealanders are no exception - reporting a significant rise in scams like fake how-to videos. Imagine the cruel irony of looking up a guide on how to speed up your PC, only to fall victim to a piece of malware you've been tricked into installing by an AI-generated "computer expert."
Luckily, as the baddies hungrily embrace new technology, renowned cyber security brands like Avast have been just as quick to join the fray.
Deepfake Guard is a new feature that has just been added to Windows PC installs of Avast Premium Security; a comprehensive collection of the latest cyber safety tools in one convenient package.
Listed under the Scam Guardian Pro section of the app, once enabled, Deepfake Guard can be left running in the background, or you can choose to scan any video or audio content manually, as you play it.
As far as I can tell, Deepfake Guard works kind of like a Shazam for scams - watching and listening out for any AI-generated content and alerting you if you're watching or listening to something that's likely to be fake.
This way, you'll know to avoid clicking any links in the description or comments sections, or downloading any apps or tools the bot on screen may recommend.
All the major video platforms can be scanned automatically, including YouTube, TikTok, Facebook, X and DailyMotion - but you can run Deepfake Guard manually over any video you watch.
Unfortunately, it's a Windows PC-only feature at this stage which is a shame for Mac users like me - and kind of surprising given how many people consume most of their video content on their phones. I'm sure Avast will roll it out to other platforms as soon as possible; meanwhile, I guess some protection is better than none at all.
What surprised me even more was some of the icky stuff I found within the Premium Security app itself.
Starting with a generous helping of straight-out spam.
When you visit a website to download an app, it's fair enough to expect a certain amount of promotion of that company's other products. Avast has quite a selection - and in my experience they all perform well, doing what they say they do on the box.
What I don't want, is to be advertised to within an app I've already paid for.
At just NZ$54.99 for the first year, you can protect one Windows PC and one mobile device with Avast Premium Security, or up to 10 devices for just $15 more. Pretty decent value. But in much the same way people got annoyed when out of the blue, Prime Video suddenly started bombarding their subscribers with ads unless they upgraded to a pricier subscription, I became increasingly frustrated the more I used Avast Premium Security.
As you'll see me demonstrate in the video below, the first thing the app prompts you to do is scan your device. It does a thorough job of this, checking not only for viruses and malware, but OS errors and other performance issues as well. Wonderful. Even on the Windows laptop I'd completely reset and erased for the purposes of writing this review, the Premium Security scan still turned up a host of junk files, broken shortcuts and out-of-date drivers.
Unfortunately, when I pressed the helpful green "RESOLVE" button, a popup window appeared inviting me to subscribe to Avast Cleanup Premium in order to do so. When I closed that window another splash screen appeared telling me my "Issue level is critical" and I could start a 60 day free trial. Even when I quit the scan results window to get back to the main menu, I was encouraged to sign up to Cleanup Premium for a third time.
This infuriating experience was replicated in various sections of the app. Scan result showed out of date drivers? No worries. Avast can sort that automatically... Once you've signed up for an Avast Driver Updater subscription.
Want to take your online privacy to the next level? Avast has a VPN for that... for a fee.
Look, I don't begrudge Avast offering different steps of cyber protection at different price points. I don't even mind they have a whole app store button on the main menu of the Premium Security app itself.
Just don't tell me I have a problem then tell me the only way I can fix it is buy paying for and installing a whole other app. That's just not helpful.
Then we come to the most paradoxical thing of all; Avast Secure Browser.
As part of Premium Security's Privacy settings, you can opt to monitor Microsoft Edge, Google Chrome or Mozilla Firefox to protect yourself from browser-based attacks like password theft and site spoofing. Not super helpful for someone like me who prefers the lesser-known Arc browser but a great way to keep most users from accidentally clicking onto dodgy sites they shouldn't be anywhere near.
Avast takes this a step further by offering its own, stand-alone Secure Browser, with all these privacy and safety features already built in.
Sounded great to me, until I installed it, opened it and was met with a bookmark bar with Amazon, eBay, AliExpress and Booking.com already pre-installed, shortcuts to Booking.com, Amazon, YouTube and Facebook right under the default search bar and most alarming of all, a seemingly endless scroll-board of "news" thumbnails featuring totally essential breaking stories such as, "Memory Loss Often Starts with One Simple Habit" and "Dermatologists: The 1 Vitamin You Need if You Have..."
It also told me the temperature was 74°F - not that helpful in metric New Zealand. Maybe you can delete and deactivate all this eye pollution in the settings, but needless to say, I shut that thing down faster than a "Neuropathy Sock" could "Go Viral in New Zealand."
I'm not saying Avast Secure Browser isn't secure. I'm just saying a cyber security company needs to take a good hard look at itself if it's prepared to bombard a paying customer with that level of spam within its own branded software. I have elected NOT to use it as my new default browser.
Ironically, I did sign up for Avast Driver Updater and it fixed my dysfunctional fingerprint scanner in seconds. Like I said, these products definitely work. I just don't like HOW some of them work.
The important thing to know is, the all-new Deepfake Guard doesn't cost any extra. It's now a built-in feature of the Scam Guardian Pro section of Avast Premium Security - for Windows users anyway. Perhaps something to think about before you watch that next "How To" video and follow the link for more detailed instructions.
Click here for more information and pricing on Avast Premium Security, featuring Deepfake Guard.
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