61-year-old man loses £3,250 to deep fake Elon Musk scam on Facebook after being persuaded to invest via AI trading platform video

Summary

A 61-year-old man from Huddersfield lost £3,250 after falling victim to a deep fake Elon Musk scam on Facebook in 2023. He saw a video appearing to be Musk promoting an AI trading platform and was persuaded to invest. After providing his contact details, he spoke to an "account manager" who guided him to download MetaTrader 5 and AnyDesk, allowing remote access to his device. He made several investments, believing he was making profits, but was unable to withdraw his money when he tried to close his account. His daughter raised concerns after finding negative reviews about the company online, prompting him to seek legal help to recover his funds. A solicitor warned that AI-generated deep fake scams using well-known figures are becoming more common and difficult to detect.