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Artificial Intelligence (AI) Deepfake Video Scams Steal $273,350 From Three Men: Report
Three Canadian men reportedly lost hundreds of thousands of dollars after watching videos featuring prominent figures vouching for a cryptocurrency investment scheme.
According to CTV News Toronto, Mohammad Haque came across a video on social media in which Prime Minister Justin Trudeau explained how Canadians could generate income by investing in cryptocurrencies.
Haque decided to invest starting with CAD 1,200 ($880), but when he thought he had accumulated $424,775 from his investments, he discovered that his account was actually empty.
The video he watched turned out to be a deepfake manipulated by artificial intelligence (AI). Haque lost CAD 226,000 ($165,610) to the scam.
Darrell Budnick, who was scammed out of CAD 130,000 ($95,262), saw a similar deepfake video. He thought he had made a profit after investing in the system, but later realized he couldn’t withdraw his funds.
“I’m panicking right now. I have a heart condition that’s getting worse. It hurts. It’s scary. I thought I was safe, and now I’m not.”
Giovanni Pugliano was also fooled after watching a YouTube video where Elon Musk claims that people can start investing in cryptocurrency with just a few hundred dollars and become rich. The video was a hoax and Pugliano lost 17,000 CAD ($12,457).
“I ended up investing a lot more than I expected and, suddenly, I was broke.”
According to the Canadian Anti-Fraud Centre, investors across the country lost CAD 148 million ($108.45) to fraudulent investment scams in the first half of 2024. Most of these schemes involve cryptocurrencies.
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