Overview

• Paul Davis, a 43-year-old from Southampton battling depression, lost £200 in Apple gift cards after a deepfake Jennifer Aniston professed love and presented a fake driving licence as proof.
• Scammers have bombarded victims with AI-crafted videos and images of high-profile figures, including Mark Zuckerberg and Elon Musk, to gain trust.
• Fraud networks refine deepfake models with victims’ personal details and rely on non-refundable gift cards to make stolen funds difficult to trace.
• This latest case follows a French woman’s nearly £700,000 loss in a fake Brad Pitt romance scam tied to a Nigerian-based operation under international investigation.
• Dr. Jennifer Williams of the University of Southampton warns that spotting AI deepfakes requires scrutiny of pixelation inconsistencies and implausible requests to safeguard potential victims.