British woman lost over $600,000 to scammers who used AI-generated videos of actor Jason Momoa to convince her she was in a romantic relationship with him, leading her to sell her house and transfer the funds for their supposed dream home in Hawaii.
Scammers used artificial intelligence to create deepfake videos of actor Jason Momoa to conduct a romance scam against a British widow. The scammers initiated contact by supposedly replying to her comments on one of Momoa's fan pages, then began frequent communication. They sent AI-generated videos of the actor claiming various things to convince her they were in a romantic relationship. The scammers told her that Momoa's fortune was tied up in film projects and that the money she sent would be used to build their dream home in Hawaii. The victim eventually sold her house in Cambridgeshire and transferred over $600,000 to the scammers. After receiving the money, all communication stopped and the scammer vanished, leaving the vulnerable woman without a home. Police reported that the same scammers had targeted other victims across the UK and US, with another British woman losing up to £80,000 using the same technique. The incident is part of a broader trend of criminals using AI to create deepfakes of celebrities for fraudulent purposes, with other cases involving Steve Harvey and other public figures being reported.
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