‘AI deepfake romance rip-off duped me out of £17k’ | EUROtoday

‘AI deepfake romance rip-off duped me out of £17k’
 | EUROtoday
BBC Head and shoulders image of Nikki MacLeod, who was a victim of an online romance scam. She is 77, has thin-rimmed glasses, short grey hair with purple streaks and is looking straight at the camera. She has a dangly cross earring in her left ear and is wearing a beaded necklace.BBC

Nikki MacLeod believed she was sending cash to a girl she was in an internet relationship with

A sufferer of an elaborate on-line romance fraud has instructed BBC Scotland that she was utterly satisfied by deepfake movies used to rip-off her out of £17,000.

Nikki MacLeod, 77, despatched present playing cards and made financial institution and Paypal transfers believing she was sending cash to an actual lady she was in an internet relationship with.

She mentioned she was initially sceptical however felt reassured by video messages from the particular person, which she now is aware of have been faux.

She desires to warn others in regards to the growing use of AI know-how by scammers.

Nikki obtained in contact with BBC Radio Scotland’s Morning Programme throughout the BBC’s Scam Safe week final month.

The retired lecturer from Edinburgh mentioned: “I am not a stupid person but she was able to convince me that she was a real person and we were going to spend our lives together.”

Tips to identify an AI deepfake video – Dr Lynsay Shepherd explains

The 77-year-old mentioned she was lonely after dropping her dad and mom throughout lockdown and the tip of a long-term relationship. She began chatting with individuals on-line and met the particular person she is aware of as Alla Morgan in a chat group.

She was instructed this particular person was engaged on an oil rig within the North Sea and was requested to purchase Steam present playing cards to permit them to maintain speaking. These playing cards are usually used for getting video video games. The particular person Nikki was chatting to instructed her she wanted them to permit her to get an web connection on the rig in order that they may hold speaking.

Nikki mentioned she was sceptical, however was persuaded to purchase a number of hundred kilos price of the playing cards.

She repeatedly requested Alla Morgan for a reside video name which was refused, or did not work. It was then that she began receiving recorded video messages.

“I had started to think, are you a real person?” Nikki mentioned.

“Then she sent me a video to say ‘Hi Nikki, I am not a scammer, I am on my oil rig’, and I was totally convinced by it.

“Just a few weeks later she despatched me one other video, additionally on the oil rig with dangerous climate within the background. This was earlier than she began asking me for all this cash. “

Scammers used AI to generate a video of a woman who claimed to be called Alla Morgan

The images and video sent to Nikki were created using AI technology.

There is no way of knowing where the image of the woman – Alla Morgan – came from.

It could have been made using the face of a real person with no connection to the scammers and no idea that their identity was used.

Nikki said documents, images and videos she was sent were enough to convince her to part with her cash.

“She (Alla Morgan) mentioned she was going to come back and go to me and requested might I pay for her trip from the oil rig to come back to Scotland,” Nikki said.

Nikki was the sent details of a company Alla supposedly worked for and contacted by someone in their HR department who asked for money to pay for a helicopter.

“She mentioned she would pay me again, so I gave them $2,500,” Nikki said.

The scam finally came to light when Nikki was attempting to make another payment to a bank account, supposedly belonging to Alla Morgan, and her own bank informed her she was a victim of fraud.

Police Scotland confirmed they are investigating the matter.

How to spot a deepfake video scam

BBC Scotland asked Dr Lynsay Shepherd, an expert in cybersecurity and human-computer interaction at Abertay University, to take a look at the video messages Nikki was sent.

She said: “At first look it seems legit, if you do not know what to search for, however in case you take a look at the eyes – the attention actions aren’t fairly proper.

“There are a number of apps out there, even something as simple as a face swap app or filters, that can do this. You can sometimes see when people are talking, when you look around the jawline, the filter kind of slips a bit.

“It is comparatively easy to do.”

Dr Lynsay Shepherd said videos created using AI technology can often look legitimate at first glance, but there are usually tell-tale signs they are fake

Dr Shepherd said online scammers often claim to be in a location where meeting face-to-face or even a live video call are not possible.

“Oil rigs is among the widespread ones – within the navy on base, a health care provider abroad – after which usually they construct up that relationship after which say ‘there was an emergency, I want some cash for journey’.”

Nikki said she sent around £17,000 in total to the scammers.

Her bank and PayPal have been able to get around £7,000 of that money back, but she was persuaded by the scammers to send some of the money as personal payments – through the friends and family function on PayPal. This has not been recovered.

PayPal said they do not cover personal payments under PayPal Buyer Protection.

In a statement a spokesman added said: “We’re very sorry to listen to this has occurred to Ms MacLeod. Authorised Push Payment (APP) fraud, which incorporates romance scams, is a menace that has grown throughout the business.”

He urged PayPal users to be wary of “uncommon cost requests” and added “all the time query uninvited approaches in case it is a rip-off.”

On their website, Steam warn of increasing reports of scammers coercing victims to purchase Steam wallet gift cards. The company said people should never give out a steam wallet gift card to a person they do not know.”

Police Scotland mentioned an investigation is underneath method after the fraud was reported in October and inquiries are ongoing.

A spokeswoman added: “We would ask people to be vigilant and encourage anyone who believes they may have been victim to fraud or a scam to contact police on 101.”

Nikki instructed us the scammers are persevering with to contact her, most just lately sending her a newspaper article, claiming Alla Morgan is now in a Turkish jail and wishes more cash.

She desires others to be taught from her expertise.

“These scammers don’t have any empathy at all. It’s their job and they are very good at it,” she mentioned.

“The documents looked real, the videos looked real, the bank looked real.

“With the introduction of synthetic intelligence, each single factor could be faux.”

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cdr0g1em52go