Argentinian woman defrauded of £10,000 by AI-generated George Clooney deepfake on Facebook

Summary

An Argentinian woman was defrauded of 10,000 pounds (over Rs 11.3 lakhs) by scammers who used an AI-generated version of George Clooney. The scammers sent her deepfake videos that appeared to show the actor video messaging her, with the AI version blinking and moving its mouth as it spoke. The scam began when she encountered a Facebook account claiming to belong to George Clooney. Over six weeks, the victim communicated daily with the AI-generated figure, believing it to be the actor, and sent money under the pretense of helping activate a Fans Club card and securing a job. The woman eventually discovered the scam and reported it to the FBI. In January, a French woman was similarly scammed by an AI-generated version of “Brad Pitt” and lost 697,000 pounds.