South Korean Woman Falls In Love With Scammer Posing As Elon Musk, Loses Rs 42 Lakh

Artificial intelligence has improved our lives, but it has also increased our risks. While AI allows us to complete our most difficult jobs in a matter of minutes or seconds, scammers are also taking advantage of our mistakes. You can guess this because someone can easily cheat you by impersonating a member of your family. Similarly, what happened to this woman was distinct and peculiar.

A South Korean woman’s desire to find love cost her Rs 42 lakh after being duped by a fraudster posing as Elon Musk. She received a video call from a scam artist who utilised deepfake to impersonate the CEO of Tesla. The con artist started talking sweetly to her, and she became convinced that Musk not only wanted her well-being but also wanted to make her rich.

“I experienced something like a dream last year. On July 17 last year, Musk added me as a friend on Instagram. Although I have been a huge fan of Musk after reading his biography, I doubted it at first,” she told KBS, a South Korean broadcaster.

According to a report in the South China Morning Post, she got a video call from a person who looked exactly like Elon Musk. The con artist, while talking, said that he is doing something great for the world and that he is happy when his fans are getting rich because of him. He also explained that he contacts fans randomly. “Musk even said, ‘I love you, you know that?’ when we made a video call,” she added.

According to a South Korean newspaper named Chosun, this matter is from July 2023. He told me about his children and about taking a helicopter to work at Tesla or Space X.

This entire call was because of the deepfake videos of advanced AI algorithms, in which vast amounts of data are analysed to understand the patterns in human faces, body movements and voices. The scammer showed his Elon Musk ID card and also said that he loves her. By trapping her in his trap, he extorted 70 million Korean won, i.e., about Rs 42 lakh from the woman. When the matter reached the police, it was found out that this was an AI-generated scam.