An 80-year-old woman was scammed out of more than $50,000 in Apple gift cards by criminals using AI-generated deepfake technology to impersonate Elon Musk as her 'boyfriend' who needed money because his assets were frozen.
An 80-year-old woman fell victim to a deepfake scam where criminals used AI technology to create fraudulent videos or recordings impersonating Elon Musk. The scammers convinced her that Musk was her boyfriend and that she needed to send him money via Apple gift cards because the government had frozen his assets. The woman purchased more than $50,000 worth of Apple gift cards from various stores and sent them to the scammers. She also took out a $28,000 mortgage on her previously paid-off home and fell 10 months behind on payments, putting her at risk of foreclosure. When confronted by her family, she insisted her boyfriend was actually Elon Musk and didn't understand she had been scammed. The incident is part of a broader trend of deepfake scams targeting elderly victims, with losses from deepfake fraud reaching $410 million in the first half of 2025 alone, compared to $359 million for all of 2024. People over 60 lost more than $3.4 billion to cyber scams in 2023 according to FBI data.
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