A 43-year-old British man was scammed out of £200 by fraudsters using AI-generated deepfake videos and messages impersonating Jennifer Aniston, who claimed to love him and need money for Apple subscriptions.
Paul Davis, a 43-year-old unemployed man from Southampton, UK, fell victim to an AI-powered deepfake scam that lasted approximately five months. Scammers used artificial intelligence to create convincing videos, voice clips, and images impersonating celebrities including Jennifer Aniston, Mark Zuckerberg, and Elon Musk. The fraudsters sent Davis what appeared to be Jennifer Aniston's driver's license, romantic messages calling him 'my love,' and AI-generated videos of the actress saying she loved him. They convinced him that Aniston needed help paying for her Apple subscriptions and pressured him to send £200 worth of non-refundable Apple gift cards. Davis, who suffers from depression, received dozens of such scam messages daily for five months before falling victim to the Aniston impersonation. The scammers also sent fake certificates claiming he had won prizes like £500,000 and a Range Rover. Davis reported knowing others who lost over £1,000 to similar AI-powered celebrity impersonation scams. Dr. Jennifer Williams from the University of Southampton identified this as a sophisticated phishing scam using neural network-generated images and deepfake technology to create convincing fake celebrity content.
Domain classification, causal taxonomy, severity scores, and national security assessments were LLM-classified and may contain errors.
Using AI systems to gain a personal advantage over others such as through cheating, fraud, scams, blackmail or targeted manipulation of beliefs or behavior. Examples include AI-facilitated plagiarism for research or education, impersonating a trusted or fake individual for illegitimate financial benefit, or creating humiliating or sexual imagery.
Human
Due to a decision or action made by humans
Intentional
Due to an expected outcome from pursuing a goal
Post-deployment
Occurring after the AI model has been trained and deployed