By BECKY RUTHERFORD
Los Alamos
Romance and celebrity scams have always been a huge cybersecurity issue, and with the advent of Artificial Intelligence (A.I.) they are even worse. These scams aren’t new, but the new A.I. powered ones have proven to be very profitable for the scammers.
In recent news, a French woman, Anne, was scammed out of $850,000 by a fake Brad Pitt. Their correspondence was packed with A.I. generated materials like pictures and even videos, adding to the believability of the scam. It’s easy to be a jerk, and laugh at her, but that’s not the right thing to do here, she’s the victim in this, and when you look at the details, it becomes a lot more understandable.
The average age of a woman falling victim to a romance scam is 55-64. These guys know what they’re doing, and they look for women in this demographic to exploit. In this case the victim was 53, married to a millionaire husband, and a recovering victim of cancer. I’m guessing they knew all this and cherry picked her for those reasons.
The event started in 2023 when Anne downloaded Instagram. She was contacted by a woman claiming to be Pitt’s mother, and saying Pitt “needed a woman like her”. Somebody claiming to be Pitt was in touch the next day, which seemed odd, but as someone unused to social media she went with it.
Pitt claimed he wanted to send her gifts but money was tied up in his divorce proceedings with Angelina Jolie. So of course Anne was happy to send him the needed funds. Anne and her husband divorced in the meantime and she was awarded a large sum, all of which would end up with the scammers.
Requests for money kept ramping up as Pitt claimed he had kidney cancer and needed money for treatments. She had her doubts but Pitt would send pictures, which were later found to be A.I. generated to assuage her doubts.
A.I. generated images from scammers claiming to be Brad Pitt in the hospital
She did Google search the images to see if they were real, but couldn’t find them since they were A.I. generated and took that as a sign of their authenticity.
Anne’s daughter tried to get her to see reason, but Anne was too caught up in the lies and wouldn’t listen. When rumors broke about Brad Pitt’s new girlfriend Anne was upset and confronted him. The scammers response was to send an A.I. generated newscast video with the news anchor saying that Brad Pitt was in a relationship with Anne.
When the real Brad Pitt and his girlfriend went more public, Anne finally decided to end things, and was then contacted by “Special FBI Agent John Smith”, and after that she contacted the police.
Does it seem ridiculous to think Brad Pitt wanted a relationship with her? Maybe, but with all the work the scammers put into it, her no doubt delicate emotional situation, and her general unfamiliarity with social media, you begin to understand why it happened, and that it could happen to any of us.
Celebrity themed scams used to be laughable, but with the advent of A.I. they are getting to be much more of a threat. Many celebrities have been spoofed on social media, including Elon Musk, and used to sell fake crypto currency, romance scams, etc.
Example of a substantially less effective celebrity scam
Keep an eye on parents and others who are unfamiliar with social media. Look for signs that they are being scammed. Maybe they are in an online “relationship” and the person travels a lot, is in the military (super common scam) and can’t actually meet up in real life. Instant red flag.
Watch for signs money is tight, or other signs that something is amiss. If you suspect a relative is being scammed, you need to step in and try to help them, contact the police if need be.
What’s the best way to avoid these scams? Be careful on social media with who you friend, and keep in mind it is highly unlikely a famous person (looking at you Tom Hiddleston, rawwr) would reach out to you with romantic or other intentions. If you are contacted by a “famous person” on social media, assume they are fake and immediately block them. If any stranger online asks you for money, it’s a scam. To avoid being targeted by scammers, be careful with what you post online, if you give away too much information it could be used against you in a romance or other scam.
If you think you are a victim of a scam like this, don’t be afraid to speak up, reach out to someone for help! These people are professional criminals, and they are now aided by A.I. to make these scams seem even more real. Don’t be ashamed, get help.
Be skeptical of everything, if it seems like a scam, it is!