Searching for Mr. Deepfakes: The Encounter [Part 3]

Summary

Mostly Human with Laurie Segall

Episode: "Searching for Mr. Deepfakes: The Encounter" [Part 3]

Release Date: June 25, 2026

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Episode Overview

In this pivotal third installment of the "Searching for Mr. Deepfakes" series, host Laurie Segall and her investigative team continue their multi-year quest to uncover the real identity of the mysterious operator behind the world's largest deepfake pornography website, "Mr. Deepfakes." The episode weaves together personal stories of victims impacted by deepfake abuse, detailed investigative reporting, and the moral challenges that come with confronting digital harm in the real world.

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Key Discussion Points & Insights

The Human Impact of Deepfake Abuse (02:33–09:41)

• Bree Sunshine Smith shares her harrowing experience as a victim of deepfake abuse. A trusted Nashville meteorologist and active community member, Bree’s digital likeness is exploited by an imposter, who uses sexually explicit manipulated content to deceive and extort her fans.

  • The attacker lures victims to encrypted messaging apps, making detection and response difficult.
  • Bree is deeply distressed, not only from the violation itself but from the lack of legal or institutional recourse:

    "What was so demoralizing was feeling that I had no agency. I had no power. And if it can happen to me, it can happen to anybody else." (02:33)

  • Bree details the psychological toll and her motivation to support others:

    "My guiding principle through that whole first three or four months, which were really dark, I would just tell myself over and over again, remember this so you can help somebody else." (08:12)

• Laurie Segall contextualizes Bree’s story, emphasizing how deepfake harassment has moved from the fringes of the internet into mainstream platforms, destabilizing trusted relationships and communities:

  "This type of abuse isn't limited to sites like Mr. Deepfakes. It's infiltrated mainstream social media and platforms across the Internet, preying on people's desires. And it won't stop." (08:52)

The Hunt for Mr. Deepfakes: Technological Whack-A-Mole (14:01–17:09)

• The Site Goes Down: The team discovers that "Mr. Deepfakes" temporarily shuts down after intense investigative activity near its suspected operator, David Doe.
• Site Hardens: When the site returns, it’s more secure—forums and illicit materials move behind registration walls, and new sign-ups are disabled. This is interpreted as a defensive move, not remorse.
  • Laurie: "The threat of exposure isn't making you not want to do this. It's making you want to build up a fortress..." (16:19)
  • Nicole Boucher: "I don't think it was a coincidence that we had gone out there and three days later, the site was shut down, even temporarily." (16:31)

Building the Profile: The Offline David Doe (17:09–24:17)

• Uncovering Personal Life: Laurie and her team methodically piece together David Doe’s real-world identity—from his work as a hospital pharmacist near Toronto to his status as a new parent.

  • Colleagues describe him as mild-mannered and respectable, contrasting sharply with his online alter-ego:

    "He was a very kind person. Like, I would never, ever, ever expect anything bad." (20:02)

• Digital Evidence:
  Nicole shares findings from online forums like Black Hat World, tracing the origins of Mr. Deepfakes to 2018 after a Reddit ban on non-consensual deepfake porn. Evidence shows David Doe actively recruiting for his new site and building it as a monetized “community” rather than a mere hobby.

  • Forum posts reveal calculated business strategies, marking the enterprise as opportunistic rather than accidental:

    "Looking for someone to upload short adult video clips to my site... Anyone active in the deep fakes community? It's currently fragmented and I want to rebuild the community." (22:17)

  • Laurie reflects on the dissonance between David Doe’s offline persona and his predatory online activity:

    "It felt like we were looking at two different people, the one online and the one offline. And that discrepancy just kept widening." (24:17)

The Confrontation – A Stakeout and Face-to-Face Encounter (30:32–35:05)

• Hospital Stakeout:
  The team tracks David Doe to his hospital workplace in Markham, Ontario. Using careful planning and public records, they wait to confront him as he arrives for his shift.
• The Confrontation:
  Laurie approaches David Doe, identifying herself and seeking comment. He recognizes her instantly and evades, refusing engagement.
  • Laurie narrates the frustration and emotional letdown of this encounter:

    "There’s something about him looking at me where he was so just, like, pissed. He wasn’t scared that he did this thing and it... went out of control.” (34:10)

  • She questions whether confronting him was ever going to bring closure, or if the pursuit only highlights the limits of accountability in digital crimes:

    "I've been searching for Mr. Deepfakes for a year... In finding him, I have more questions than answers." (35:05)

Final Efforts: Finding David Doe's Home (36:31–40:51)

• The Baby Registry Clue:
  Roxy Hunt suggests searching local baby stores for registries, leveraging knowledge of Doe’s recent parenthood. This leads to confirmation of Doe’s home address.

  • Roxy on their thinking:

    “Maybe they did they have a baby shower. Is there anything there? Is there an invite? Is there a registry?” (36:31)

• At the House:
  The team visits Doe’s unremarkable suburban home—"like the Truman Show," as they describe it—but is unable to make contact. Conversations with neighbors confirm the family’s residence but not their presence.

Facing Reality and Looking Forward (40:51–44:10)

• Laurie’s Reflection:
  The episode closes with Laurie's sense of determination and a mandate to amplify victim voices, given the resistance and lack of accountability encountered: > “We need people to know that this thing that you’re doing is so wrong and why it’s so wrong. We gotta, like, utilize all of this to kind of create a movement around it because we’re just gonna be speaking to his back, like now. We gotta go big.” (43:25)

• Next Episode Tease: The journey leads next to Paris Hilton, another major figure speaking out against deepfake and non-consensual digital abuse.

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Notable Quotes & Moments (w/ Timestamps)

• Bree Sunshine Smith on the Reality of Deepfake Victimization:
  "What was so demoralizing was feeling that I had no agency. I had no power." (02:33)
• On Platform Response:
  "I went to my employer at that point... and they said it's not illegal. There's nothing we can do." (04:16)
• Laurie on Deepfake Epidemic:
  "It'll keep taking down unsuspecting people, threatening trusted relationships and destabilizing communities." (08:52)
• Laurie on the Silence of Perpetrators:
  "You're not going to listen to me today. You're not gonna listen when the laws are made. You're not gonna listen to women when they speak out about this. We're all gonna be talking to your back, right?" (43:45)
• Roxy on Investigative Ingenuity:
  "It was an energy that was like, okay, anything we could possibly think of before we have to go back to New York... And then I think we thought, let's go old school." (36:31)

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Important Segment Timestamps

• 02:33 – 09:41: Bree Sunshine Smith’s victim story and its community impact
• 14:01 – 17:09: The Mr. Deepfakes site goes down; security escalation
• 17:09 – 24:17: Investigating David Doe’s real-world identity and digital footprint
• 30:32 – 35:05: Hospital stakeout and confrontation with David Doe
• 36:31 – 40:51: Following baby registry clues to locate Doe’s home
• 40:51 – 44:00: Final reflections and future directions

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Episode Tone

Direct, empathetic, investigative—balancing deeply personal stories of real harm with the relentless, methodical pursuit of justice and answers. Laurie maintains both compassion for victims and a measure of incredulity and resolve in the face of bureaucratic and perpetrator silence.

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Summary

This episode of Mostly Human is an emotional, granular chronicle of victim trauma and relentless investigation. It exposes not only the grave personal and communal impact of deepfake sexual abuse, but also vividly illustrates the frustrating disconnect between real-world personas and digital exploitation. The investigative team’s pursuit of David Doe—both procedural and personal—underscores the profound need for accountability and systemic change, a mission set to crescendo in the series' final episode.

Next Up: The investigation expands to public advocates with Paris Hilton, promising a culmination in both investigative and cultural reckoning against deepfake abuse.

Transcript

[iHeart Podcast Announcer]

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[Ben Nadifafry]

Thirty years ago, an island off Manhattan almost brought down New York City.

[Narrator/Voiceover]

Who will you trust? Your friends and neighbors? Or you trust the people five miles overseas?

[Ben Nadifafry]

This is a story about neighbors turning on each other and what happens when a forgotten place decides it's had enough.

[Revisionist History Host]

But we're not stopping, are we?

[Ben Nadifafry]

Listen to revisionist history. The Staten island problem on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. 150 years ago, they were hunting us

[Lori Siegel]

down to kill us.

[Historian/Commentator]

And now they're hunting down immigrants to deport them.

[Rebecca Nagle]

This is First America, the true story of how the United States came to be and how we got to this present moment. Listen to First America on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.

[Mangesha Tigadar]

I'm Mangesha Tigadar, and I'm back with a new season of my podcast, Skyline Drive. This time I talk to scientists, biopunks, curmudgeons, blue zoners, super seniors, and Goa's top cryotherapy lab to try to understand this obsession with living forever and what it means for all of us. And I get into a bit of trouble along the way.

[Bree Sunshine Smith]

I'd say probably start bone smashing.

[Revisionist History Host]

That doesn't work.

[Bree Sunshine Smith]

To make it look more defined. They say it works.

[Roxy Hunt]

I don't know.

[Mangesha Tigadar]

Listen to Skyline Drive how to live Forever on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.

[McDonald's Advertiser]

All new drinks are now at McDonald's with refreshers like the Strawberry Watermelon Refresher and the Mango Pineapple Refresher with Popping Boba to crafted sodas like the Sprite Berry Blast with berry flavors and cold foam. Who knew ice cold drinks could be so fire six? All new drinks are here now at McDonald's.

[Ben Nadifafry]

Refreshers contain caffeine.

[Lori Siegel]

Before we get started, this episode contains talk of sexual abuse and sexual assault. Please take care while listening.

[Bree Sunshine Smith]

What was so demoralizing was feeling that I had no agency. I had no power. And if it can happen to me, it can happen to anybody else.

[Lori Siegel]

Bree Sunshine Smith is a local meteorologist in Nashville, Tennessee. She's been in the business for 15 years. First in St. Louis then Nashville, bringing the daily weather to her town and becoming someone her community can count on.

[Bree Sunshine Smith]

Having been a meteorologist here for nine years. I have a really good reputation with the community, and I have a lot of trust in this community.

[Lori Siegel]

Bree's an active member of the community, too. Her kids go to school there, she's in parent organizations, and she's on the board of several nonprofits. She goes to the local events, and she's developed this trusted reputation for quite literally being the calm in the storm. But then in October 2023, something happened to shake that foundation. It all started when a viewer reached out to Bri and said he'd been getting direct messages from an account that claimed to be her.

[Bree Sunshine Smith]

So I wrote him back and I said, nope, not me. I never direct messaged you. Please report and block it. I'm sorry that happened to you. And then he wrote me again. Like the next day. He said, well, I assume it was your husband, because they had pictures that I only your husband would have. And I said, nope, not me again. And block. And then he wrote me back again. And full, full disclosure, his emails were getting a little weirder with time. Like when he wrote me the third time, he was like, I was so excited because I've always had a crush on you. But he went ahead and wrote me for the third or fourth time and said, I. I grabbed screen grabs of my conversation with the imposter and I wanted you to see them. And in those screen grabs, he had been chatting with this imposter via signal.

[Lori Siegel]

Signal is an encrypted messaging app focused on privacy and security.

[Bree Sunshine Smith]

In those screen grabs were two images where my face had been placed on someone else's semi nude body. And there was one deep fake video. That was a video I had shot at work that someone manipulated to making it look like I was saying, no, it's me. It's really Bri. You can believe it. It's me. Yes, dear, it is me. It is really me. I hope this video proved to you it is the Smith you are chatting to. And also, I will appreciate if things are kept within us. So it was like a proof of identity video with these two pictures. And it was just awful when I saw it. I mean, just the weather lady. Never in a million years. So I went to my employer at that point. I brought it to leadership's attention and I was like, look, I don't know what to do. Like, this has crossed a line. This is not just a spam account. Something. Something awful is happening. And they said it's not illegal. There's nothing we can do. Since then, there have been dozens, if not hundreds, of additional imposter accounts that have come up. I mean, 10 in the last seven days.

[Lori Siegel]

Someone pretending to be Bri online is creating fake social media accounts and targeting people who comment on her real social media posts. They're finding people who trust and even admire Bri from her time on the news and chatting with friends and fans. The imposter gets people to download another app where they manipulate that trust and try to convince people to send them money in exchange for things like fan club perks and sometimes for something more.

[Bree Sunshine Smith]

The one in October, the gentleman or the viewer said, you know, they were promising sexual favors and asked me to forward money for the Conrad Hotel.

[Lori Siegel]

Brie, like so many of the victims that we talk to, tries to investigate her own abuse. She tries to track down the many imposter breeds, but what she finds is that it's impossible to keep up with.

[Bree Sunshine Smith]

There's so many. But at least when I could catch them, I could report and block the page. When these imposters start direct messaging people saying, hey, it's Bri. I need your help. Can you come chat with me over on this private app? I can't intercept that. I'm just a meteorologist trying to be my own kind of investigative journalist here. Just this last weekend, someone on TikTok told me that there was a fake TikTok account, and that TikTok account asked them to chat on Google Chat. There's just so many layers to how nefarious this is. Like, the gentleman on TikTok said that the message that came to him from the fake account was like, hey, I don't know who to go to. My husband and I just separated. I really need some help. Like, domestically. I don't feel safe. And so then you get these people in the community. They're like, oh, my God, Bri, what do you need? And so they, you know, the first ask is a, can you help me? I need help. And because this community knows me and trusts me, they're like, yeah, we'll help you, Bree. What do you need? So it's really dastardly.

[Lori Siegel]

Bree's identity is stolen from her and weaponized against her. The extortionists are preying on the trust and reputation that she's built, and they're using sexually explicit defects for financial gain. And the reality of the situation takes a toll on her.

[Bree Sunshine Smith]

For the first couple months after this happened, like, I was. I was unwell. I was emotionally, like, just it was so the paranoia. And like, anytime I did anything online, I was like, is this gonna be distorted? Like, disgusting form of identity theft. I mean, that's really what it is. It's stealing someone's identity, it's stealing their good name. It's distorting it and making it into something really vile and really vulnerable. And then it's attacking the very.

[Mangesha Tigadar]

That I've.

[Bree Sunshine Smith]

That I've tried to protect for nine years. I mean, going through my own personal humiliation, being scared that my kids might see it. You know, my kids don't have phones, but their friends at school do. Like, what if. What if they were at school someday and someone was like, oh, look at your mom. And it's like, my God, I don't want my kids to be traumatized by that. Or if someone would target my kids because they're my kids. Right? My guiding principle through that whole first three or four months, which were really dark, I would just tell myself over and over again, remember this so you can help somebody else. Remember this so you can help somebody else.

[Lori Siegel]

Talking to Bri. This is the spread of sexually explicit deepfakes in real time. This type of abuse isn't limited to sites like Mr. Deepfakes. It's infiltrated mainstream social media and platforms across the Internet, preying on people's desires. And it won't stop. It'll keep taking down unsuspecting people, threatening trusted relationships and destabilizing communities.

[Bree Sunshine Smith]

What was so demoralizing was feeling that I had no agency, I had no power. There were no tangible physical steps I could do. It just was very isolating and just caused my mental health to go into such a deep, dark place. And if it can happen to me, it can happen to anybody else.

[Lori Siegel]

I'm Laurie Siegel and this is mostly human. A tech podcast through a human lens. You're listening to part three of our four part series, Searching for Mr. Deepfakes.

[iHeart Podcast Announcer]

Run a business and not thinking about podcasting. Think again. More Americans listen to podcasts than ad supported streaming music from Spotify and Pandora. And as the number one podcaster, iHeart's twice as large as the next two combined. So whatever your customers listen to, they'll hear your message. Plus, only Iheart can extend your message to audiences across broadcast radio. Think podcasting can help your business? Think iHeart streaming radio and podcasting. Call 844-844 iHeart to get started. That's 844-844, iHeart.

[Historian/Commentator]

The declaration, which is full of these beautifully rendered sentences and paragraphs about enlightenment ideals does also have this darker history to it.

[Rebecca Nagle]

Why is it important for the darker part of the Declaration of Independence and the American Revolution? Why is it important that Americans know about it?

[Historian/Commentator]

Well, if we don't understand the full context in which our nation was founded, we won't understand the full context in which our nation now finds itself.

[Rebecca Nagle]

I'm Rebecca Nagle. Gohin Tawa Don Jalakayetli Que la citizen of Cherokee Nation.

[Lori Siegel]

Are you guys big Chiefs fans?

[Revisionist History Host]

Hell yeah.

[Rebecca Nagle]

This is First America, the true story of how the United States came to be and how we got to this present moment. Listen to First America on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts or wherever you get your podcasts.

[Ben Nadifafry]

Thirty years ago, an island off Manhattan almost brought down New York City.

[Narrator/Voiceover]

Who will you trust? Your friends and neighbors? Or will you trust the people five miles overseas?

[Ben Nadifafry]

This is a story about neighbors turning on each other and what happens when a forgotten place decides it's had enough.

[Revisionist History Host]

We reached for a feeling that exists in this city, but we're not stopping, are we?

[Ben Nadifafry]

I'm Ben Nadifafry and for my new series on revisionist history, I took a deep dive into Staten Island's attempt to secede from New York city in the 1990s and what it all has to do with the politics of resentment that dominate America today. Listen to Revisionist the Staten island problem on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.

[Theo Henderson]

Mainstream media is full of cruel depictions of the unhoused, stories that shame and blame and paint the unhoused as a monolith. We the Unhoused is the podcast that's changing that. I'm Theo Henderson, creator and host, and for years I've created a space where the unhoused and their advocates can tell their own stories. In the last few months alone, I've interviewed unhoused parents, immigrants, mutual aid organizers, veterans, the LGBQTIA community, and the policymakers who make the laws that impact the unhoused existence. We in House is a two time Webby and Signal award winning show with many exciting guests on the horizon. Tune in this week for my interview with Dr. Jill Wicheric, a street doctor turned influencer whose work with the unhoused community has made a huge impact online and in her community. Listen to we the unhoused on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts or wherever you get your podcast.

[McDonald's Advertiser]

All new drinks are now at McDonald's with refreshers like the Strawberry Watermelon Refresher and the Mango Pineapple Refresher with popping Boba to crafted sodas like the Sprite Berry Blast with berry flavors and cold foam. Who knew ice cold drinks could be so fire six? All new drinks are here now at McDonald's.

[Ben Nadifafry]

Refreshers contain caffeine.

[Lori Siegel]

So, breaking news. Mr. Deepfakes is down. Oh, I know. Plot twist. I'm talking to Roxy Hunt. She's a part of my team helping to find the anonymous man behind Mr. Deepfakes, the world's largest deepfake pornography site. We'd gotten a tip from someone in the Netherlands who said that he believed a Canadian man named David Doe is Mr. Deepfakes. Me and my team spent three days traveling across the Toronto, Ontario area searching for David Doe. We spoke to a lot of people who knew him, and we gathered a ton of clues while we were out there. It just felt like we were so close, but we had yet to get to him in the real world. Is it working for you?

[Roxy Hunt]

No, it's like, it won't even, like, pretend to load.

[Lori Siegel]

Yeah, same. And now the Mr. Deep fake site is down. What do you think?

[Revisionist History Host]

Why do you think it's down?

[Lori Siegel]

I mean, like, the timing is suspicious, right? We go out there, we try to track him down, we talk to his family, we start closing in on his friends. A day later, it the site is down. Maybe he thinks if he shuts it down for a minute, we're gonna stop looking. We shouldn't stop, you know, I mean, by the way, great, I'm. I'm happy it's down, at least temporarily. But, like, yeah, he. I still believe that there needs to be some accountability, you know, I mean, we.

[Roxy Hunt]

We made an impact on him in some way.

[Nicole Boucher]

And sure enough, about 20 hours after it went down, it came back up.

[Lori Siegel]

This wasn't the first time this has happened. We noticed a pattern. The site would go down for a day or so, but then it would come back up and it would be even more secure than it was before. It wasn't like, all of a sudden, Mr. Deepfakes realized that the site was doing wrong. Actually, it was the opposite. The site blackouts were likely maintenance periods to switch servers or to protect the contents in the community. Here's my producer, Nicole Boucher, again.

[Nicole Boucher]

They kind of moved all of the bad stuff behind registration and also disabled registration. So, like, everything in the forums that was talking about tutorials, guides, the deepfake face sets, the majority of that now were put kind of behind. Like, you had to log in, and they actually then closed login.

[Lori Siegel]

And I think that was like, eye opening to me, like, no, no, no. The threat of exposure is. Isn't making you not want to do this. It's making you want to build up a fortress so you can continue to do this and get away with it.

[Nicole Boucher]

It definitely felt related to the fact that journalists were reaching out and asking questions. I don't think it was a coincidence that we had gone out there and three days later, the site was shut down, even temporarily.

[Lori Siegel]

So the site might have fortified itself, but so did we.

[Nicole Boucher]

You know, it had been in five days from between when we went to the. Got the tip and we went out there. So now we were really like, okay, let's settle in. Let's dig deep on both the real world information we have and these online clues to try to build a better sense of who Mr. Deepfakes is and also get closer to the real person.

[Lori Siegel]

Hello?

[Revisionist History Host]

Hey, Laura.

[Lori Siegel]

Hi. How's it going?

[Revisionist History Host]

Good, good.

[Lori Siegel]

How are you?

[Revisionist History Host]

I'm well, thanks. How are you?

[Lori Siegel]

I know it seems like, very cryptic, so I appreciate you calling me back.

[Revisionist History Host]

You have me curious, that's for sure.

[Lori Siegel]

I made my way through a list of contacts Nicole and I had compiled, people from all different parts of David Doe's life. And in one email, I got confirmation. Holy shit. Hi. Okay, I just have to tell you really quick, they're parents, because I immediately got a response. Thank you for your email. I'm away on parental leave. Please reach out and then give me two names. So there we go. When I saw the car seat in the back of the red Mitsubishi in the driveway of David Doe's childhood home, it had all just been speculation. But now we had a definitive answer. Mr. Deepfakes is a dad. And I have to say, this was a complicated revelation for our team. For so many personal reasons, my husband and I wanted to start a family. And Roxy, our producer, was about to have a baby.

[Roxy Hunt]

I was pretty far along in my pregnancy. I was about to be sending out of office responses saying, I'm on parental leave. So to think about the mindset that they, him and his wife would be in at that moment is insane. They're. They're dealing with a newborn. They're not sleeping. They're going through it all. They're bringing a new person into the world.

[Lori Siegel]

Meanwhile, David Doe's website was violating people every day. It was hard to negotiate. The main objective of this research period was tracking David Doe down. We wanted to try to find him in the real world. One of the biggest leads from our search was his name on the official registry of Pharmacists, which listed him as working at a hospital in Markham. So he might work in this Toronto suburb, but did he live here too? And are you in Markham?

[Revisionist History Host]

I'm just outside of Markham. I grew up kind of in that area.

[Lori Siegel]

I mean, would you have any idea if they just. If they still live nearby or anything like that?

[Revisionist History Host]

I don't know where they live. Sorry.

[Lori Siegel]

But they are based in like, Markham as far as you're. As far as you know. And they are kind of out and

[Revisionist History Host]

about in Markham as far as I know. Like I said, I haven't been in contact with them, so I don't know if anything.

[Narrator/Voiceover]

Yeah.

[Lori Siegel]

But as these conversations went on, I came away with something else. A clearer picture of who David Doe is or at least how he presents himself in the real world. I think we saw that you guys went to pharmacy school together, maybe connected on like a social network or something like that.

[Revisionist History Host]

So I do know David. I'm not personally in contact with him, but I do. Like he is friends with some of my friends.

[Lori Siegel]

What's the family like?

[Revisionist History Host]

Oh, just seeing them, they were just very respectful people. She is very. She's a very sparky, charismatic sort of person. He was a very kind person. Like, I would never, ever, ever expect anything bad.

[Lori Siegel]

Yeah, all these phone calls are so important. Like, we are beginning to paint an even fuller picture of the nuance, which I think is becoming more and more important because we're like, how does someone like this do this online?

[Nicole Boucher]

You were having these real world conversations. On the one hand that made you go, is this really him? On the other hand, the digital, like, footprint that I was digging into, like in this sort of digital underworld that we now had access to, with all of his aliases and usernames connected to him, it was kind of doing the opposite. It was making it more and more clear that this was the person who had created Mr. Deepfakes.

[Lori Siegel]

And this deeper level of access we had to the online workings of David Doe and Mr. Deepfakes, it showed us almost step by step, someone willfully building out the site that did so much harm. We had known, for example, that there was a link between Reddit banning deepfake pornography in 2018 and the emergence of Mr. Deepfakes. But now we could see it happening in real time. On February 3, 2018, three notable things happened. A BBC article reports that Reddit is considering action against the deepfake trend because it was non consensual. That very same day, the original domain name of Mr. Deepfakes, DPFK s.com is registered and on a site called Black Hat World Forum, a thread emerges around the potential Reddit ban news.

[Online Forum User]

This is one risky way to get traffic.

[Lori Siegel]

I see a new porn method here.

[Online Forum User]

I see lots of earning potential if done right.

[Lori Siegel]

On February 7, the Reddit ban goes into effect. A few days later, the username connected to David Doe responds to that thread. He was advertising his new site.

[Online Forum User]

Anyone working on projects involving this deepfake niche? I have a streaming platform and forum up and running and want to grow it with someone. Let me know if you're interested.

[Lori Siegel]

The same username starts new threads to recruit and attract people to his site.

[Online Forum User]

Looking for someone to upload short adult video clips to my site. There may be 100 clips to be uploaded. PM me with a price. Anyone active in the deep fakes community? It's currently fragmented and I want to rebuild the community. A project already have a working product. Also looking for content creators. Let me know. Maybe to rebuild. You should explain what it is and get some new members to join. Someone on Reddit released an app to face swap. Anyone? The community started making celebrity fake porn. Shortly after this was made public, all the related subreddits were banned. It's basically a program that uses AI to stitch one face onto another, termed deepfake. You heard the man. Let's rebuild this community.

[Lori Siegel]

He saw a market opportunity, essentially.

[Bree Sunshine Smith]

Exactly.

[Lori Siegel]

It's like this was growing very popular on Reddit and then all of a sudden Reddit shuts it down because they think that this is wrong. And then all of a sudden we have this username that's Associ David Doe that we know because of this dossier that Jordi helped put together that we're watching this guy not just build it, but talk about creating community traffic optimization, monetize, like monetization, like improving SEO. It seems as though the David Doe did not view himself as just like, oh, I. I just love porn. This is a hobby. He looked at himself as a builder who was taking advantage of a market opportunity. Add the advances in artificial intelligence and what happened in 2022 with ChatGPT helping make this mainstream, and we are seeing a wave that nobody realizes. Like, we're already caught up in it.

[Nicole Boucher]

Yeah, I mean, I think we'd had our suspicions before, but I think it's really rare to actually get to like, peel back that curtain. And that's what we were able to do with this. And what's interesting is he does there. He has over 500 messages on Blackout World that span much before 2018. And in it, he's talking about wanting to find a niche, wanting to find like the site or what thing that he would build.

[Lori Siegel]

Even as we learned more about David Doe, the guy that was working in a hospital who was helping people, we also learned more about the site from the beginning. It had been created to take advantage of a market opportunity aimed at non consensual abuse, to, quote, bring the community back together. After Reddit banned the channel, it felt like we were looking at two different people, the one online and the one offline. And that discrepancy just kept widening.

[Online Forum User]

Best way to monetize an adult tube site Right now I have Rev Share banner ads.

[Revisionist History Host]

He was really, you know, a studious guy, loves playing video games.

[Online Forum User]

I have a 1.5 year old site getting 100,000 plus daily.

[Revisionist History Host]

So my mom actually was in the hospital there and he was in uniform, so we kind of met there.

[Online Forum User]

I am in the adult tube niche. I use crypto payments, stealth, PayPal's, VPNs, offshore, etc. And I'm still paranoid.

[Revisionist History Host]

He's very, a very nice person, so I'd be very surprised if he's involved in anything unethical or bad.

[Nicole Boucher]

This was all happening over the course of like literally two or three weeks. And we got to a point where we did feel like we had enough to try to go back out there, especially with this like real world place of the pharmacy.

[Lori Siegel]

The pharmacy Nicole is talking about is inside a hospital in Markham, Ontario and an official registry of pharmacists. David Doe is listed as working in its inpatient pharmacy. Some of the contacts we spoke to also said he at least lived in that area at one time. This was our best lead to get back to Canada. The day we were scheduled to leave, I called the pharmacy to see if there was any chance he was working while we'd be there.

[Revisionist History Host]

Okay, I can, I can check his schedule.

[Ben Nadifafry]

Great.

[Revisionist History Host]

Hold on one second.

[Lori Siegel]

Thanks.

[Revisionist History Host]

Hello?

[Lori Siegel]

Hey.

[Revisionist History Host]

Hello.

[Lori Siegel]

Hi.

[Revisionist History Host]

He's in today. Your best bet is to call.

[iHeart Podcast Announcer]

Okay.

[Revisionist History Host]

That he should be on the unit right now and that should be the cell phone holding on to. Yes.

[Lori Siegel]

Awesome. And. And if I'm not able to get in touch, you know, if he's there the. The next couple days at all, he

[Revisionist History Host]

is here tomorrow, but he's off on Friday. Cool.

[Lori Siegel]

All right. Thank you so much. Really appreciate it.

[Revisionist History Host]

You're welcome.

[Roxy Hunt]

Cool.

[Revisionist History Host]

Thank.

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[Historian/Commentator]

the declaration, which is full of these beautifully rendered, you know, sentences and paragraphs about enlightenment ideals, does also have this darker history to it.

[Rebecca Nagle]

Why is it important for the darker part of the Declaration of Independence in the American Revolution? Why is it important that Americans know about it?

[Historian/Commentator]

Well, if we don't understand the full context in which our nation was founded, we won't understand the full context in which our nation now finds itself.

[Rebecca Nagle]

I'm Rebecca Nagle. Gohin Tawadon Jaleka Yetli Gay La citizen of Cherokee Nation.

[Lori Siegel]

Are you guys big Chiefs fans?

[Revisionist History Host]

Hell yeah.

[Rebecca Nagle]

This is First America, the true story of how the United States came to be and how we got to this present moment. Listen to First America on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.

[Ben Nadifafry]

Thirty years ago, an island off Manhattan almost brought down New York City.

[Narrator/Voiceover]

Who will you trust? Your friends and neighbors? Who will you trust? The people five miles overseas?

[Ben Nadifafry]

This is a story about neighbors turning on each other and what happens when a forgotten place decides it's had enough.

[Revisionist History Host]

We reached for a feeling that exists in this city, but we're not stopping, are we?

[Ben Nadifafry]

I'm Ben Nadif Haffrey, and for my new series on revisionist history, I took a deep dive into Staten Island's attempt to secede from New York city in the 1990s and what it all has to do with the politics of resentment that dominate America today. Listen to Revisionist history, the Staten island problem on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.

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[Lori Siegel]

I think we have to operate under the assumption that, like, if we get him today, this is the 30 seconds we're gonna get with. It's 6:30 in the morning. We landed in Toronto late last night. We're now in a rental car driving to Markham Stouffville Hospital. It's a Thursday, and we know from calling the day before. David Doe is working today and he won't be working tomorrow. So this is our only shot. My hope is to be able to ask him for comment, like, how do you negotiate having this site that harms so many women while literally walking into a hospital where you help people? The hospital is huge and it has multiple entrances, but we were actually able to triangulate which entrance we believed he would go into based off of online directories and photos of the parking lots in the hospital. When we arrive, the parking lot is essentially empty. So we are currently outside of the place we believe where Mr. Deepfakes works. We're on a stakeout. He will hopefully. I mean, hopefully we're in the right parking lot. He will show up any minute. A lot of things have to happen for us to be able to get to him. So fingers crossed. We know David Doe's Shift starts at 8, and before long, the parking lot fills. We move the car closer to the entrance, and Nicole gets out to get another vantage point. 7:40. Okay, we're in the window. You have a job shift that starts at 8. Chances are you get in. I mean, realistically, like, five minutes before. Why would you get it at 7:40? Time is ticking by pretty slowly. I don't know if he's gonna be able to park here. This parking lot's, like, full now. Okay, 7:45. A few minutes before 8, I get out of the car. I join Nicole on the sidewalk near the entrance. That's not him, right?

[iHeart Podcast Announcer]

No.

[Lori Siegel]

That guy has glasses. That's not David. I don't think. And I also, like, I just can't see anyone from far away. Not him. I'm wearing a microphone to record any conversation I might have with David Doe. And we're also filming with a camera from the car and an iPhone up close. This is our plan. And now we just have to wait the seconds are ticking by. And then there he is. David Doe is walking toward the entrance wearing jeans and a light sweater. Hey, David. The moment he saw me, I could tell he knew who I was. It's Lori. I've been trying to get in touch. I just want your comment on weather night. He intentionally ducks around a truck to avoid me. I try to keep up, all while talking to his back. We have strong evidence to the point that you're behind Mr. Deepfakes, David. We've been trying to get in. My mic breaks up as I walk further away from the car and the camera. I ask how he negotiates the disconnect. I try to how someone who's a father, someone who is a son, who's a brother, can have a site that perpetuates this type of digital abuse. Can I get any comment, David? I'm just trying to understand why it's real harm. So we just saw him. Nicole and I get back in the car to debrief. There's something about him looking at me where he was so just, like, pissed. He wasn't scared. He's not scared that he did this thing and it. And it, you know, went out of control and. And, you know, it had started out this, but it became this. That is not what I got from that. I thought that maybe finding Mr. Deepfakes and having a conversation with him, maybe I could, like. This is so delusional. I can't believe I'm saying it out loud. I could explain to him why this thing he was doing that he didn't believe had real world harm, had real world harm, but it's not a conversation he wants to have. Me actually, quite literally showing up here is hopefully an indicator that this is not going away, that these things that you have done online that have had real offline impact, like, it's not gonna go away. You don't get to just, like, take yourself off social media and go to work.

[Nicole Boucher]

Does it in some way, like, fuel that fight then?

[Lori Siegel]

I just don't feel fulfilled. I've been searching for Mr. Deepfakes for a year, right? Maybe more. And in finding him, I have more questions than answers. We waited for eight hours to see if he would come back out.

[Theo Henderson]

What time is it now?

[Lori Siegel]

It's 12:33. We have four. Four, one and a half more hours. So it's 3:15, 3:00pm Okay. I think his shift is over in the next 45 minutes, but we are, like, high alert in case he comes out. Our team was posted near different entry points throughout the day, but Ultimately, we believe he went out another exit. We have two more days here, and we're not returning to the hospital because we know he's not working today. Our goal still is to figure out where he lives and see if there's any chance he would talk to us in a more private setting. And that's exactly how we spend the day. Driving, ringing doorbells, searching apartment complexes. But each door, each knock is a dead end. Roxy and I talk about that moment, like, all the addresses we have. No one's answering the doors. They're the wrong places. So then we're in the car after leaving there, and I just remember being like, God, like, I just cannot believe we can't get his address. And then Roxy just comes up with what I can only describe as the best idea ever.

[Roxy Hunt]

It was an energy that was like, okay, anything we could possibly think of before we have to go back to New York. And so I think one of the breakthroughs being the knowledge that he was recently a parent. That was a clue that I feel like we hadn't really gone down. So I was pregnant, and I had recently had a baby shower. That's why I wasn't able to join you on the last trip. And part of that was thinking, well, maybe they did they have a baby shower. Is there anything there? Is there an invite? Is there a registry? And then I think we thought, let's go old school. Yes, there might be an online registry, but that comes from someplace real. Maybe there's just a physical brick and mortar store where they may have been registered. And I just searched, like, Google Maps for, like, baby stores in this area.

[Lori Siegel]

It's a long shot. It's a long shot.

[Revisionist History Host]

Thank you for calling Canada's greatest toy and baby store.

[Lori Siegel]

Is it possible just to see if you guys have the registry on file or the name.

[Revisionist History Host]

Sure. Give me one second. What's the name?

[Lori Siegel]

First, we give David Doe's wife's name. No luck. We give David Doe's name also. No luck. Are there any other baby stores?

[Revisionist History Host]

You have a phone number?

[Lori Siegel]

Oh, yeah.

[Rebecca Nagle]

Hold on.

[Lori Siegel]

Let me give you their phone numbers. I give the phone number for David Doe's wife.

[Revisionist History Host]

No, nothing's coming up.

[Lori Siegel]

Okay, let me give you one more if that's okay. Last resort. I give Mr. Deep Fake's phone number.

[Revisionist History Host]

David.

[Lori Siegel]

Yeah, that's it.

[Revisionist History Host]

Okay, I guess it's under. Has a husband's name. Is it

[Lori Siegel]

one of. I think that would be it In Markham? Yeah. Oh, I think. I think that's it. The person on the other end to Confirm that we have the right people, gives us David Doe's home address.

[Revisionist History Host]

There's actually nothing on the registry.

[Lori Siegel]

There's nothing on the registry. Great.

[Revisionist History Host]

Absolutely nothing. Awesome.

[Lori Siegel]

Okay, thank you so much. I appreciate it. Hope you have a great weekend.

[Revisionist History Host]

Cool.

[Lori Siegel]

Thanks. Bye. We now have their home address. We put the address into maps and find that it's only 15 minutes away. We want to prepare before knocking on his door. And it's the end of a long day, but we figure it can't hurt to drive by. That's his house right there. That's the house at the end of the block, the one on the left. Here's Nicole again.

[Nicole Boucher]

We planned to go back in the morning with a little prep and thinking about, like, you know, what we would say. In the meantime, I, like, checked to make sure it was the address and it was registered to both David and his wife.

[Lori Siegel]

It was a beautiful neighborhood. And the idea that, like, this home, as we're kind of looking at it, I'm like, whoa. It's like, it looks like we could be in Mr. Rogers, like, in, like, you know, this home.

[Roxy Hunt]

It's like the Truman show.

[Lori Siegel]

It felt like the Truman show. That's exactly how it felt. It helped us, I would say, put together, like, an important puzzle piece in the whole mystery of who is this person in real life and what life are they living? After a night of preparation, we're back in the car. We drive to David Doe's address and park a few doors down from his house. By the way, shades are drawn.

[Revisionist History Host]

Like, I don't see any obvious cameras or anything.

[Lori Siegel]

Like, yeah, well, there's probably a ring.

[Historian/Commentator]

Cameron.

[Lori Siegel]

I walk up to the house, Every shade is closed, you guys. I wait, wow, there's even a shade over the front door. Yeah, there's a shade over the front door, too. No one answers. I can't see into the house, but it feels lifeless. I try checking in with the neighbors. Hey, morning. Morning. Can I ask you a quick question?

[Mangesha Tigadar]

Yeah.

[Lori Siegel]

Do you know if David Doe and are here?

[Revisionist History Host]

They live there, but I don't know today.

[Lori Siegel]

Okay. Do you know when the. I'm just trying to get in touch. Do you know when the last time you saw them was?

[Revisionist History Host]

Maybe. Definitely last week. Maybe Thursday. Friday.

[Lori Siegel]

Thursday or Friday. Okay. Okay. Well, I feel like they might have gone away for the weekend.

[Revisionist History Host]

I don't know.

[Lori Siegel]

The neighbor was like, yeah, they're usually here. It's basically like, I haven't seen them. We tried knocking on his door one more time before heading home to New York. No answer. And no one seems to be home. We would leave the next day and I just felt so unbelievably conflicted. Technically, we'd accomplished our mission in coming out here. So why did I feel so frustrated? I've been in tech for 15 years. I've interviewed people during hard times, I've asked hard questions. I've never been looked at with that level of disdain. Like I'm yelling at your back, saying, like, the harm is real. Like, you're not going to listen to me today. You're not gonna listen when the laws are made. You're not gonna listen to women when they speak out about this. We're all gonna be talking to your back, Right? And so like, that for me, I think was a bit of a switch of being like, okay, well, you won't listen. So we need to go tell every single person, like every lawmaker, every celebrity, like every, every parent, like, we need people to know that this thing that you're doing is so wrong and why it's so wrong. We gotta, like, utilize all of this to kind of create a movement around it because we're just gonna be speaking to his back, like now. We gotta go big. It's interesting to look back on this moment because I wish I knew then what I know now. That's why it's, you know, even though it's uncomfortable to talk about, it's happening today. And I'm speaking out for all these other women and children who are having to deal with this right now so that they can have some justice and how this journey would take me to Paris Hilton. That's next week on Searching for Mr. Deepfakes Part 4, the final installment. Find Searching for Mr. Deepfake Part 4 in the Mostly Human podcast feed on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts or wherever you listen to your favorite shows. If you've been targeted by sexually explicit deep fakes, we want to hear from you. Email [e-mail] and for resources, visit Beyond MrDeepFakes.com that's Beyond MrDeepFakes.com for resources. If you or a loved one needs support, text HOPE to 64673 or call or text 988. Mostly Human is a production of iHeart podcasts and Mostly Human Media. Searching for Mr. Deepfakes is a multi year investigation into partnership with BFD and 1111 Media. It's produced and edited by Lori Siegel, Nicole Boucher, Lauren Hanson, Abu Zafar, Roxy Hunt and Tony Castle. Sound design and mixing by Derek Clements and Abu Zafar. If you want to see our short form vertical docuseries on Mr. Deepfakes, go to Mostly Human Media on TikTok or Paris Hilton's TikTok channel. Find us all on socials at Mostly Human Media. You can also watch Mostly human on our YouTube page and if you want to get in touch, please email [e-mail] we'd love to hear from you. Oh, and please rate and review the show and share it with your friends. See you next week.

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