A Canadian woman lost thousands of dollars after a fake news report she saw on social media tricked her into falling for a cryptocurrency investment scam, according to local reports.
Shivaun Taylor, an Ontario mother, was browsing TikTok when she came across a fake news report featuring a so-called investor who turned a $250 investment into a $28,000 monthly return, she told CTV News Toronto.
“The news story said a police officer was making thousands of dollars a month. That made me get really interested, and I just signed up,” Taylor said.
After contacting the phony investment platform, Taylor said the scammers called her the next day and convinced her to invest $250 in cryptocurrencies. They kept hounding for more and more money until she had handed over $7,250.
She said she was not able to withdraw any of the money she thought she was investing. Then she discovered the news report she thought was real was, in fact, an artificial intelligence-generated scam.
“My money is not in that platform anymore,” Taylor told the news outlet. “That money was to take care of my child who has autism. I am so stressed and devastated. That money was to support him.”
Taylor is far from the only person to fall for a scam of this nature. In fact, deepfake scams are on the rise. Bad actors use AI technology to create hyperrealistic images, audio or videos purporting to represent real people, sometimes even celebrities.
The Department of Homeland Security has issued a warning regarding this technology, classifying it as a burgeoning threat within the broader scope of synthetic media.
In a 2022 report, the Federal Trade Commission estimated that tens of thousands of Americans lost a total of $1.18 billion to crypto fraud between 2018 and 2022.
