Marine Corps veteran Wesley Skelton lost $2,500 after being deceived by AI-generated videos of Donald Trump, Bank of America's CEO, and Elon Musk promoting a fraudulent 'Golden Eagles Project' investment scheme on Telegram.
A fraudulent investment scheme called the 'Golden Eagles Project' used AI-generated videos of prominent figures including President Donald Trump, Bank of America's CEO, and Elon Musk to deceive victims on the Telegram platform. The scam promised that collectible 'golden eagles' costing $59 each could be traded at Bank of America for over $100,000 each. Marine Corps veteran Wesley Skelton from Pittsburg, California, fell victim to the scheme after watching the fake AI videos on Telegram. He purchased 324 golden eagles for approximately $2,500, believing he would make over $35 million. Despite warnings from colleagues at the VA in Martinez who said it sounded like a scam, Skelton proceeded with the purchases. When tested by precious metal experts at Witter Coins in San Francisco using a precious metal analyzer, the 'golden eagles' were found to contain no gold and were worth less than a dollar each, being composed primarily of copper, iron, and nickel. The supposed 'Trump silver coins' contained effectively no silver. Bank of America confirmed they had nothing to do with the scheme. Skelton was only able to recover around $600 through his credit card processor for purchases made within the last 30 days, leaving him with a significant financial loss.
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