South Korean woman says I love you to ‘Elon Musk’, loses ₹41 lakh
₹41 lakh) to a romance scam after being deceived by a deepfake video featuring Tesla CEO Elon Musk, according to local media reports. According to a report by KBS, Jeong Ji-sun felt like "a dream come true" when she began chatting with someone on Instagram who claimed to be Musk. “I experienced something like a dream last year," she told the broadcaster.
“On July 17, ‘Musk’ added me as a friend on Instagram. Although I have been a huge fan of Musk after reading his autobiography, I doubted it at first." The report noted that the scammer, posing as the tech billionaire, shared work-related photos, talked about his children, and explained how he randomly connected with fans. “'Musk' sent me his ID card and a photo of him at work.
He also explained that he contacts fans randomly," she added. When Jeong asked the scammer what it was like when he met South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol in April of last year, he said, “Yoon talked about 'Let's establish Gigafactories in Seoul and Jeju.'" Additionally, the scammer, impersonating “Elon Musk," spoke about his children and mentioned taking a helicopter to work at Tesla or SpaceX. Also Read: Deepfake dilemma! News icons warn public as manipulated videos spread; here's what happened Her initial doubts about her new Instagram friend were eased after they had a video call, which appeared to validate his identity.
The scammer was using a deepfake video of Musk. “‘Musk’ even said, ‘I love you, you know that?’ when we made a video call," she said. In deepfake videos, advanced AI algorithms analyze vast amounts of data to understand patterns in human faces, voices, and body movements.
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