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Florida man says his wife ‘wants a divorce’ after he lost $45,000 on an AI-generated Elon Musk car scam (www.independent.co.uk)

submitted 1 day ago by resipsaloquitur@lemmy.world to c/nottheonion@lemmy.world

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cross-posted from: https://reddthat.com/post/56223456

George Hendricks, a 69-year-old from Leesburg, a suburb of Orlando, told ClickOrlando he lost $45,000 after a scammer targeted him with a deepfake video of Musk. Deepfakes are digitally-altered videos often used to impersonate notable public figures.

Now, Hendricks tells the outlet that his wife “wants to get a divorce” over the scam.

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[–] arc99@lemmy.world 3 points 1 day ago (1 children)

You don't have to be tech savvy to realise the adage "if it sounds too good to be true...". I would have thought Americans of all people would develop armour against scams. But even a modicum of due diligence like asking relatives, or googling his situation might have protected him.

I should add that my dad is 80 and housebound and gets scam calls all the time and bats them off like flies so being old is not an excuse.

[–] MyMindIsLikeAnOcean@piefed.world 0 points 1 day ago

I said he was stupid. What do you want from me?