Description: An Ontario retiree, Judy Skene, reportedly lost nearly $1 million after a Facebook ad featuring an alleged AI-generated deepfake video of Prime Minister Mark Carney drew her into a cryptocurrency investment scam. Reports said scammers later persuaded her to liquidate retirement funds, mortgage her condo, and take a credit-card cash advance.
Editor Notes: Timeline notes: Incident ID date of 07/01/2025 is an approximation based on reporting that the victim was first deceived in July 2025. Identified public reporting on this incident began in early June 2026. The incident ID was created on 06/16/2026.
Entities
View all entitiesAlleged: Video generation technology developers , Synthetic media generation technology developers , Synthetic audio generation technology developers and Deepfake technology developers developed an AI system deployed by Scammers impersonating Mark Carney , Scammers and Cryptocurrency scammers, which harmed Targets of scams , Targets of scammers in Canada , Mark Carney , Judy Skene , Investors , Epistemic integrity , Elderly investors , Elderly individuals , Cryptocurrency investors and Elderly individuals in Canada.
Alleged implicated AI systems: Video generation technology , Synthetic media generation technology , Synthetic audio generation technology , Social media platforms , Facebook advertising system , Facebook and Deepfake technology
Incident Stats
Incident ID
1532
Report Count
2
Incident Date
2025-07-01
Editors
Daniel Atherton
Incident Reports
Reports Timeline
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Scammers have cheated the Sault's Judy Skene out of nearly a million dollars.
The 86-year-old retired pharmacist was first deceived in July 2025 by a Facebook ad that featured an AI-generated deepfake video of Prime Minister Mark Carney urg…
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After Sault Ste. Marie's Judy Skene was scammed of nearly a million dollars by a case of online fraud, the Canadian Anti-Fraud Centre has offered advice to the public to spare them from suffering a similar ordeal.
Skene, an elderly widow wi…
Variants
A "variant" is an AI incident similar to a known case—it has the same causes, harms, and AI system. Instead of listing it separately, we group it under the first reported incident. Unlike other incidents, variants do not need to have been reported outside the AIID. Learn more from the research paper.
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