Love in times of artificial intelligence
The scam, which hit Shreya Datta, 37, and drained her of her savings and retirement funds while she was saddled with debt, involved the use of digitally altered fake videos and a script so sophisticated she felt “her computer had been hacked.” brain”. The method?
The scam is commonly known as “pig butchering,” and refers to victims likening them to pigs fattened by the scammers with love and affection before committing the financial slaughter, tricking them into making a false cryptocurrency investment.
The rapid growth of this type of fraud, believed to be run by Southeast Asian criminal groups, has resulted in billions of dollars in losses in the United States, and victims say there are few ways to recover the money.
This type of scam seems to be on the rise.
And in that sense, Datta said that she also had to deal with public comments like: “How can you be so stupid?”
As has happened with many victims, Datta’s experience began on a dating application, in his case Hinge, where last January he met “Ancel”, who introduced himself as a French wine merchant and resident of Philadelphia.
Datta confessed that she felt “bombarded by his charisma” when the conversation quickly moved to WhatsApp. The gym-goer with the dreamy smile deleted his Hinge profile to give it “focused attention,” a refreshing experience in the age of fleeting online connections.
From then on they began to exchange selfie photos, emoticons and made video calls in which the man appeared friendly but “shy” and with a dog.
Later, it was learned that they were “deepfakes” images with Artificial Intelligence (AI) technology.
The two texted each other daily and “Ancel” would ask him about everyday things like if he had eaten, taking advantage of Datta’s desire to have a loving partner after his divorce.
Plans to meet physically were postponed again and again, but Datta was not immediately suspicious. On Valentine’s Day last year, she received a bouquet from “Ancel” sent from a Philadelphia flower shop, with the card addressed to her as “Honey Cream.”
When she sent him a selfie posing with the flowers, he showered her with red kiss mark emojis, according to WhatsApp exchanges.
Buying a false dream
That’s how “Ancel” sold him a dream.
“The dream was, ‘I’m retiring early, I’m fine. What’s your plan?'” said Datta, an immigrant from India.
“Then he said, ‘I’ve made all this money investing. Do you really want to work until you’re 65?'”
So he sent him a link to download a cryptocurrency trading app, which came with a two-factor authentication to make it look legitimate, and showed him what he called profitable trades through annotated screenshots.
Datta converted some of his savings into cryptocurrency on the US-based Coinbase exchange, and the fake app initially allowed him to withdraw his first earnings, boosting his confidence to invest further.
“When you win astronomical amounts of money, it disrupts your normal perception of risk,” Datta said in retrospect.
Thus, “Ancel” encouraged her to invest more savings, take out loans and, despite being initially reluctant, to also liquidate her retirement fund. And that’s when her financial debacle came.
This is just one of thousands of cases of the particular scam.
Source: With information from AFP.
