Woman Loses $50,000 To A Fake Elon Musk

Woman loses $50,000 to a fake Elon Musk:"Celebrity deepfakes are being employed in scams—swindling people out of tens of thousands of dollars in the process. A South Korean woman lost $50,770 in a romance scam after she fell in love with a deepfake version of Elon Musk, according to an April 19 broadcast on KBS.On the show, the woman, who was referred to by the pseudonym Jeong Ji-sun, said the Tesla CEO added her as a friend on Instagram last year.“Although I have been a huge fan of Musk after reading his autobiography, I doubted it at first,” she told KBS, according to a translation by The Korea Herald.The scammer convinced Jeong by sending her photos of Musk’s ID and him at work. He texted her about his children and flying in a helicopter to work, and told her that he often contacts fans randomly. Jeong even said she spoke to “Musk” over video calls, in which he told her, “I love you, you know that?”The fake Musk then promised to invest Jeong’s money and help her get rich. He persuaded her to deposit 70 million Korean won ($50,770) into a bank account—then disappeared without a trace."~ Fortune Magazine