I wasn't scammed - but I was almost scammed. A friend of mine, someone I know well personally, asked for $100 to cover their phone bill for the month, saying they had hit hard times. I tried to give it to them, but the social media platform blocked the transfer after noticing they recently changed bank information. It wasn't my friend, her account was hacked by a scammer.
Thank you for your inquiry about individuals in the UK, aged 20-35, who were victims of social media scams perpetrated by AI accounts. Recently, there are reports of AI augmentation in fraudulent social media scams. Scammers use deepfake technology, synthetic voices, and other sophisticated tools to create convincing synthetic identities. These scams not only result in significant financial loss to the victims but also considerable emotional harm. I do not have direct case studies for you, but you might reach out to organizations for victims of fraud and fraud support. There are also online communities where victims post about their experiences, and these accounts are typically confidential. People are becoming aware of AI scams, although many victims have yet to make their experiences public. I can help strategically identify and reach out to participants for your work who are connected to the relevant networks. Or, I can assist in developing trusted networks for this. I would be happy to help.
Hello, I'm 33 this year, and I'm not sure if my story is considered a form of love scam (but it felt like one to me). - I'm not from the UK, but from Malaysia. Scammer was based in Australia. - Scam was done via a roleplaying site which transitions to Discord - Scammer was not using AI, don't think so, unless the texts between us were generated with AI which I wasn't aware of or thought about such possibility that time - Didn't lose cash (yet?) but I was terribly affected on the emotional side that it affected my mental health - Nope, I haven't told my story in the press before Gist of my story: - Met scammer online on roleplaying writing site - Switched to Discord to continue the roleplay writing - Began to form deeper bond over texts and sweet words - Scammer convinced me towards sexting for a few times even though instinctively I felt uncomfortable - Scammer mentioned wanting to visit me but that never came true - Scammer suggested we officially become a couple - When I decided to stop being in contact as our friendship felt too weird for me, scammer tried to win me back by aggressively texting me on all connected social media e.g. Whatsapp, FB, Instagram, Steam, the roleplay site Thank you :)
Greetings, and I appreciate the opportunity; unfortunately, I do not have any first hand experience of getting scammed through social media or AI enabled fraud. I have observed the harm it can do to individuals and small businesses, especially with AI generated ads and fake accounts becoming more convincing. If it is beneficial for your article, I can share the perspective of a small business owner that has had to protect a brand from impersonation scams. We've had fake accounts mimic The Happy Food and entice receiving customers with 'discounted hampers.' It was truly heartbreaking to see people being duped, and we developed our digital presence and educated the public and verified every channel we use. If you are amenable to the idea of a shared experience from that side of the story - how scams target brands and how actual businesses stand against it - I would love to share that experience with you. This is an issue that is growing faster within ecommerce, and small businesses are regularly in the targeting field.