A woman pays around 300,000 euros to an actor who pretended to have financial problems. However, the scam was eventually uncovered when she tried to contact him officially.
A woman from the USA fell victim to an elaborate scam in which a fraudster used deepfake technology to impersonate actor Lee Jung-jae, the star of the Netflix series Squid Game. This is reported by the English-language magazine Dexerto.com.
The fraudsters used manipulated videos and AI-generated chats to deceive the woman over the course of months. She believed she was in a romantic relationship with the celebrity and transferred a total of around 300,000 euros to the impersonated Lee Jung-jae, who claimed to have financial problems.
The perpetrator(s) seemingly worked professionally: they used AI tools to generate convincingly real video messages, imitate voice messages, and create a digital presence on social media. It was only when the victim attempted to contact the actor through official channels that the scam was revealed.
Deepfake fraud is a growing scam tactic that is increasingly being used
According to a study from University College London, deepfake is a scam tactic with the greatest potential for harm: this is mainly because fake content is difficult to recognize and stop, and can be used for many different purposes. From discrediting a personality to extortion, where one pretends to be the kidnapped daughter of a family.
And the damage caused by so-called “romance scams” is already very high: the Federal Trade Commission of the USA reports that in 2022 about 70,000 people lost a total of 1.3 billion US dollars. On average, this is 4,500 US dollars per person.
Victims are often people who are looking for relationships online or belong to fan communities of well-known personalities. Perpetrators deliberately choose celebrities with a high profile to increase credibility.
A recent scam attempt of particular magnitude occurred on YouTube: a crypto scam on YouTube has more viewers than the official stream from Nvidia. Such scams are unfortunately not uncommon in 2025: Thousands watch the CEO of Nvidia as he allegedly promotes a crypto scam – What’s behind it is typical for 2025
