An American woman lost $375,000 over two years to scammers who used AI-generated voice messages impersonating actor Martin Henderson to conduct an elaborate romance fraud, ultimately leading her to move to New Zealand believing she would marry the celebrity.
An American woman named Lea fell victim to a sophisticated romance scam involving AI technology over a two-year period from approximately 2022-2024. The scam began when she posted on a Virgin River fan page and received messages from someone claiming to be actor Martin Henderson's agent, followed by contact from the supposed actor himself. The scammers used AI to generate voice messages mimicking Henderson's voice, telling her she was loved and making promises of marriage and starting a family together in New Zealand. Over the course of the relationship, Lea transferred $375,000 to the scammers through various requests including $30,000 for a private jet, $10,000 for bail money, $5,000 for commercial flights, $12,000 for gift cards, $56,000 for shipping a non-existent box containing valuables, and multiple $5,000 Bitcoin transfers. She also purchased 25 MacBooks allegedly for the scammer to set up a business. In December 2024, Lea moved to New Zealand expecting to marry Henderson and was scheduled to pick him up from Auckland Airport on January 31. The scam was exposed when a friend sent her a news article showing the real Henderson participating in a bike rally in Matakana while the scammer claimed he was hospitalized in Johannesburg. Her bank account of 18 years was subsequently closed due to money laundering flags. The real Martin Henderson has since spoken out about the incident and warned fans about such scams.
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