Interesting but sad that there are still so many gullible folks...even with AI

[theking]

An AI-generated Brad Pitt conned a woman out of $850K. What makes people fall for celebrity dating scams?

It sounds like something out of a Lifetime movie: A famous movie star reaches out to you on the internet, and you strike up a whirlwind romance. Unfortunately for one unnamed French woman, that rom-com scenario was nothing more than a long con that cost her her life savings. According to news reports, the woman was in a yearlong online relationship with a scammer posing as actor Brad Pitt with the help of AI technology. It was only after she’d sent the scammer $850,000 — which “Pitt” purportedly needed for a kidney treatment — that the woman realized she’d been fooled.

“It’s awful that scammers take advantage of the strong bond between fans and celebrities,” a representative for the real Pitt said in a statement obtained by Variety in January. “This is an important reminder not to respond to unsolicited online messages, especially from actors who are not present on social networks.”

But this woman is hardly alone in getting scammed by people posing as celebrities online. Two more women were reportedly conned out of hundreds of thousands of dollars by a different faux-Pitt. Meanwhile, reports abound of people being duped — and losing money to — scammers impersonating stars like Keanu Reeves, Stranger Things star Dacre Montgomery and Sandra Bullock, who recently spoke out about her “deep concern” surrounding these social media frauds. And with AI constantly advancing, it’s easier than ever to pretend to be someone you’re not — even a celebrity.

But even with AI, it may still seem strange to believe that a celebrity you have never met is in love with you — not to mention asking you for money. Experts, however, say a perfect storm of factors allows these con artists to operate successfully. Here’s what to know.

Why some people fall for AI dating scams
Scammers who use AI to pose as celebrities are often at an advantage over their targets because not everyone knows how far this technology goes. Research from 2021 found that people cannot reliably identify “deepfakes” — a fake video or image made using AI to convincingly misrepresent someone’s face or voice.

“AI’s pace of development is leaving AI-detection methods in the dust, and the human eye is already not enough,” Yaron Litwin, digital safety expert at Canopy, an AI-powered digital protection app, tells Yahoo Life. “Many internet users are still unaware of the advances made in AI video generation and may not recognize it when they see it.”

Plus, thanks to advancements in AI, you may not be able to use the same tried-and-true methods typically used to identify online liars — like, say, doing a reverse image search to see if it’s a match for someone else, as they did time and time again on the dating scammer show Catfish. “Scammers use AI-generated pictures and videos, which makes it harder for users to verify their identities,” Litwin says.

AI chatbots also make it possible for these scammers to communicate with several potential victims at a time, more easily homing in on a person who is vulnerable to their operation, Litwin says. When the scammer believes they have established an intimate enough connection through their conversation, they may ask for financial assistance — and they will “never agree to meet in person,” he notes.

Where celebrities come into play
Research from 2018 suggests that victims of romance scams have some traits in common: They tend to be trusting, cooperative and susceptible to persuasion, as well as more easily influenced by flattery, authority or high rewards like wealth or status.

It’s not surprising that you are more likely to be conned by a romance scammer posing as a celebrity if you have these traits — what’s more flattering than an A-list celebrity wanting to date you? But there’s another key factor too: loneliness, which drives many people to seek out connections with other people on the internet in the first place.

And for some people, making a connection with a celebrity specifically is so important to them that it transcends reason. Marisa Cohen, a marriage and family therapist and relationship expert for the dating app Hily, tells Yahoo Life that posing as a star can work in these scammers’ favor. Because people often form parasocial relationships with celebrities or public figures — meaning they develop an attachment to someone they don’t know in real life — they are likely to have a “soft spot” in terms of wanting to connect more deeply with that person.