If that is related to money, people will do anything, but some people can do their honesty while working on their projects. And that makes the project can survive, even in the hardest situation, because they believe that if they can do their best and honesty, they can convince people that they will not lie about their work.
People can do anything, including editing a video and upload it on Youtube. It is easy for people who have a lot of money because they can hire someone to do that thing and do the rest. Knowing the project from the whitepaper can be a solution, but not all whitepaper from the project can telling the truth because I am sure you already heard about a project that copycat the other project just to invite more investors to invest in their project. It needs make us be careful and selective to participate in the project.
If you have read all the whitepapers you are interested in then you have read a ton of whitepapers and can make research based on that, which means if there is a copy cat you will know that and stay away from that. I personally never failed when checking the whitepaper because even if it sounds too good then you know it is usually not true neither, I just check what they want to achieve and what they have achieved and I decide if they can actually do what they say they will do.
This is why I rarely get duped by projects and rarely lose investment on small stuff. Plus when I invest in tiny market cap stuff I do not stay over a week I just stay for 3-5 days and get out and that is how I make my profit. I just do not listen to anyone who shills any coin.