In January, a French woman lost $900,000 after falling victim to scammers posing as Brad Pitt who convinced her to send money for medical treatments. The elaborate scheme, which lasted over a year, featured artificial intelligence-generated photos showing the actor in a hospital bed, supposedly battling kidney cancer. Pitt’s representatives later issued a statement expressing dismay that “scammers take advantage of fans’ strong connection with celebrities.”
These scams can also work at scale. This month, investigators uncovered an operation out of Tbilisi, Georgia, that used deepfakes and fabricated news reports to promote cryptocurrency schemes featuring well-known British personalities, including financial expert Martin Lewis, radio DJ Zoe Ball, and adventurer Ben Fogle.