Doug and Victoria Lloyd lost $177,023 to investment scammers who used a deepfake video of Elon Musk to initiate contact and then manipulated them through social engineering and remote computer access over several months.
In October 2023, Doug and Victoria Lloyd, a retired Canadian couple, fell victim to an investment scam that began with a deepfake video of Elon Musk promoting a fake investment opportunity. The couple followed a link from the video and submitted their phone number to a fraudulent website. They were subsequently contacted by scammers claiming to work for an investment platform called 'Be the Bank' who convinced them to invest in forex trading and cryptocurrency. The scammers built trust over months of daily conversations, showing fake profits that appeared to grow to $500,000. Doug Lloyd, who has limited mobility from a motorcycle accident and challenges using computers, was pressured into granting the scammers remote access to his laptop. When the couple tried to withdraw $350,000 USD in late November, the scammers became hostile and ultimately stole $177,023 from their line of credit. The couple has filed a police report with Ottawa Police Service and contacted Scotiabank, but authorities say the chance of recovering their money is slim. According to the Canadian Anti-Fraud Centre, 3,631 victims lost a collective $309 million to similar scams in 2023.
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.
AI system
Due to a decision or action made by an AI system
Intentional
Due to an expected outcome from pursuing a goal
Post-deployment
Occurring after the AI model has been trained and deployed