Now that AI can reliably imitate humans in certain situations, it’s not surprising to hear it’s being used by actual human scammers. According to an article from The Express, a 53-year-old French woman who identified herself as “Anne” to French channel TF1 was scammed out of 830,000 euros ($851,355) over two years by a scammer using AI-generated images of Brad Pitt. Anne was convinced to hand over the money because she thought “Brad” needed it for cancer treatment.
The scammer employed tactics beyond simple AI photography and video, including an extensive text-based relationship with the victim, which included sending regular (likely also AI-generated) poetry and, eventually, a feigned kidney cancer story — complete with an AI-generated photo. Truthfully, none of the generated photos look like something that couldn’t be done with Photoshop — but at least the typical Photoshop job requires a little more effort than a quick text prompt.
Anne did overlook one key red flag that is common in schemes like this — the complete lack of any real-time phone communication. Although, even if she had considered that, faking a voice call isn’t outside the range of options available to those willing to exploit AI for a quick buck.
Other ways cybercriminals have upped their game with AI include committing wire fraud against music platforms by streaming music with bots, and, of course, generating spam, including inflammatory and illegal content for use with phishing emails, malicious ads, etc. While AI hasn’t changed the overall landscape of spam and cybercrime a ton, AI has increased the speed and efficiency at which attacks can now be executed.
Unfortunately for Anne, she only discovered she was the victim of an elaborate online scam when she saw her celebrity boyfriend perfectly alive and healthy with a new girlfriend on TV — about two years after she forked over the money. Despite going to the authorities with her story, Anne was unable to recoup any of the money she lost. A fair portion of it was from a divorce settlement from her millionaire ex-husband, knowledge of which seems to have encouraged the scammer to go to such lengths.
