Description: Nottingham gallery owner Simone Simms was allegedly deceived over many months by a deepfake impersonating actor Pierce Brosnan. Believing she was in direct contact with Brosnan, she reportedly arranged an art exhibition and sold £20,000 in tickets. When the real Brosnan denied involvement, Simms reportedly canceled the event and issued refunds. Despite acting in good faith, she reportedly faced reputational and financial harm, which led to the gallery’s closure in August 2024.
Editor Notes: Reconstructing the reported timeline of events: (1) Sometime in early 2023, Simone Simms reportedly contacted what she believed to be Pierce Brosnan’s legitimate Facebook page to propose an exhibition of his artwork at her Nottingham gallery. (2) She was allegedly contacted by an entity she believed to be Brosnan, exchanging approximately 200 messages via Telegram, including voice notes and video calls featuring what appeared to be Brosnan’s likeness. (3) The scammers reportedly convinced Simms to send £3,000 for "shipping fees" related to the exhibition. (4) Over time, Simms promoted the event, selling approximately £20,000 worth of tickets, some of which included a £500 VIP meet-and-greet experience with Brosnan. (5) In November 2023, after the event was advertised, the real Pierce Brosnan publicly denied any involvement and issued a statement condemning the gallery, stating he "would never charge for a meet-and-greet." (6) Shortly thereafter, Brosnan’s legal representatives reportedly sent Simms a cease-and-desist letter, prompting her to refund all ticket sales. (7) In August 2024, Simms was reportedly forced to close her gallery, citing reputational damage and financial losses stemming from the incident. (8) On February 8, 2025, the Daily Mail published an exclusive report detailing Simms's experience.
Entities
View all entitiesAlleged: Unknown deepfake technology developers developed an AI system deployed by scammers , Fraudsters and Unknown scammers impersonating Pierce Brosnan, which harmed Simone Simms , Long Eaton Gallery , Long Eaton Gallery customers and Nottingham art community.
Alleged implicated AI systems: Unknown deepfake apps , Unknown voice cloning technology , Telegram and Facebook
Incident Stats
Incident ID
923
Report Count
1
Incident Date
2025-02-08
Editors
Daniel Atherton
Incident Reports
Reports Timeline
It was the dream signing for the owner of an unknown Nottingham gallery – an exhibition featuring the work of Hollywood actor-turned-artist Pierce Brosnan, who would also attend to meet fans.
But the gallery’s owner has revealed how her liv…
Variants
A "variant" is an incident that shares the same causative factors, produces similar harms, and involves the same intelligent systems as a known AI incident. Rather than index variants as entirely separate incidents, we list variations of incidents under the first similar incident submitted to the database. Unlike other submission types to the incident database, variants are not required to have reporting in evidence external to the Incident Database. Learn more from the research paper.
