Falling in love with deepfake Elon Musk, a woman was cheated out of $50,000

A Korean woman was defrauded of nearly $51,000 after a bad guy used a deepfake to impersonate Elon Musk to get to know her and ask her to transfer money.

"What I experienced was like a dream. 'Elon Musk' friended me on Instagram on July 17, 2023. I was a huge fan of Musk after reading his biography, but still felt skeptical when asked make friends," Jeong Ji-sun, who was scammed for money, said on television earlier this week.

The victim agreed to share her story under the condition that a pseudonym be used.

Jeong's skepticism did not last. "The person claiming to be Musk sent me a photo of his ID and a photo of him at work. This person talked about his children, how he goes to work by helicopter, and said he often randomly contacts fans." ", Jeong recalled.

When asked about Musk's experience in meeting South Korean President Yoon Suk-yeol in April 2023, the scammer said the two discussed "setting up super factories in Seoul and Jeju".

"He even said he loved me during the video call," Jeong said, affirming that she completely believed this person was really Elon Musk.

The scammer gave the victim a bank account number in Korea and encouraged her to transfer investment money because she was "happy to see her fans become rich". Jeong transferred a total of 70 million won (nearly 51,000 USD) to the account before the scammer disappeared.

This is not the first time deepfake fraud taking advantage of the image of celebrities like Elon Musk has occurred. However, Korean media assessed that the country's law lacks provisions to prevent the incident from recurring.

Most victims of love scams transfer money via credit card to fake websites set up by criminals, leaving authorities with no basis to suspend transactions and prevent money withdrawals. Research by Seoul University shows that 280 love scam cases were discovered in the period January-June 2022, of which 71.4% of victims were women.

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