Real-time deepfake romance scams are here ... and scarily realistic: How YOU ... trends now
Online daters may believe they're too smart to fall for one of the romance scammers who swindle millions from love-struck Americans each year.
They may need to think again.
Scammers have raised their game and are hitting targets with real-time deepfakes in scarily persuasive video calls.
For the victims — often an unremarkable, middle-aged homebody — it's all-too convincing.
They meet an attractive suitor online, start chatting, and then move on to Zoom or WhatsApp video calls.
The 'Yahoo Boys' scammers share videos with each other about how to execute a real-time deepfake scam
The target believes they are talking to a coiffed, buff, bearded suitor, a few years younger than herself. In reality, he looks very different and is thousands of miles away
The chats are flirtatious and filled with compliments. For victims, it's the real-life romance they'd been waiting for.
But the face they are talking to is not real.
It's been pilfered from a social media account and manipulated with readily-available tools to be a real-time deepfake.
Targets may think they're talking to a dishy, white, professional in a neighboring state.
But beneath the face-swapping technology, it's actually a scammer.
In reality, they're 6,500 miles away in West Africa, likely with an accomplice manning a complicated cell phone setup.
Before long, the conversation pivots to a reason the target must part with cash.
It's most often a needy relative in hospital or jail.
Other times, it is a once-in-a-lifetime investment opportunity.
Sometimes, it's as mundane as cash for travel, or a couple of hundred bucks to help with a delivery.
The deepfake face used by scammers has most likely been scraped from a social media profile, or from a hacked account that's been traded on the dark web
In others, the scammer wants saucy photos, which could later be used for blackmail.
Nearly 70,000 people reported a romance scam in 2022, according to the Federal Trade Commission, a government watchdog.
Reported losses hit a staggering $1.3 billion.
On average, victims lost $4,400.
David Maimon, a professor at Georgia State University and the head of fraud insights at security firm SentiLink, says he knows of some victims losing 'hundreds of thousands of dollars.'
This 'new wave of scamming' with real-time deepfakes is alarming, he told DailyMail.com.
But the known losses are 'just the tip of the iceberg,' he added, as many victims are ashamed and don't report their losses.
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