Associated Incidents
A man in the UK was duped of hundreds of pounds by a scammer who posed as Jennifer Aniston, even providing IDs to prove that they indeed were the FRIENDS star. Paul Davis was befriended by fraudsters on Facebook who referred to him as "my love" to hit where it really mattered. They used flirty emojis and sent doctored "selfies" of Aniston. Paul was asked to send non-refundable Apple gift cards to the person posing as Aniston, who told Paul that she "loved him", making him fully believe that he was talking to the actor. However, it all turned out to be a scam.
Paul says that there have been bigger instances of fraudsters posing as famous people, trying to fully convince them that they were talking to a celebrity. He states that he has often been targeted by cheaters who prey on the vulnerable. They send AI-generated videos of celebrities which look extremely real. He says he has seen videos of Elon Musk and Mark Zuckerberg as well. "It's been going on for five months," he says.
Fraudsters offer "special prize", make videos look "so real"
In one of the videos, Paul was told that he had won a "special prize", which could either be cash or even a Range Rover. In another instance, Facebook founder Zuckerberg appeared on the screen and showed an ID card. He insisted that this was not a scam and that he was a real person. Paul says they make it look "so real." However, when the fraudsters posed as Aniston to lure Paul, they used the romantic route. They told him, as Aniston, that "she loved him". They asked him to send Apple gift cards because her "subscription was about to expire". To fully nail him down, they sent him a photo of Aniston's driving licence.
"I believed it - and I paid," Paul said. He raised serious concerns over such scammers who seem to be having a laugh at the expense of someone else. "Someone I know's lost over a grand in Apple gift cards to these scams," he said. However, despite having seen fake videos of celebrities, he fell for it when they posed as Jennifer Aniston. "I got bitten. Once bitten, twice shy." Such scams are becoming increasingly common as advancements are made in AI. A woman in France was scammed out of £700,000 by a person who posed as Brad Pitt, and asked for money for "cancer treatment". Scamsters are also using AI to generate voices to resemble loved ones of unsuspecting victims and defraud them of cash, claiming that the person is in danger.