This story is truly heartbreaking, knowing that a 72-year-old woman lost her entire life savings and inheritance, totaling $224,000, to crypto scammers. They used a deepfake video of Christopher Luxon, the New Zealand Prime Minister, to lure her in.
AI, while really beneficial and impressive, can be taken and used with ill intentions. How can we solve this? For us who are more familiar with deepfakes, we can still easily identify which ones are fake and which ones are not due to inconsistencies and obvious editing techniques. However I am sure that later on, deepfakes will be so sophisticated that it will look natural and real. It’s really worrying that they are using AI for this kind of things.
I do hope they invent something that could identify AI deepfakes to differentiate from real videos.
It's painful to see how these scammers target older people, especially those who aren't tech-savvy and are more vulnerable to these tricks. I can't even begin to imagine how our granny feels after losing everything she worked for and inherited. Some might find it too much to handle and could even consider taking their own lives because of it. These scammers are truly cruel, and they deserve to rot in hell.
Hope they find the scammers. Here’s a reminder to always warn and keep your family members and friends informed about the newest scam tactics so that they don’t fall for it.