Aussie bloke is conned out of entire $130,000 life savings in terrifying new AI scam
An Australian has lost his life savings after fraudsters used a deepfake video of Nick Cave to convince him to invest $130,000 in a fake crypto scam.
61-year-old Jake from Melbourne lost money after being persuaded by his favorite Australian musician to go all-in on cryptocurrency micro-trading in 2023.
Despite not being a ‘money person’, Jake, who wishes to remain anonymous, decided to try his luck after seeing Cave’s false testimony.
The fake Cave swore by the crypto scheme in an AI-generated video on Facebook, claiming to have made thousands of dollars by doing nothing.
Jakes said his endorsement was the “icing on the cake” of a deal that seemed too good to be true.
“I respect him a lot as an artist, so of course I think ‘s***, that’s the icing on the cake,’” he said. told news.com.au.
Looking back, however, he said it was “pretty scary” when dozens of scammers tried to reel him in at the same time after he interacted with the video.
The emergency teacher said the loss of the money has left him financially crippled and banished from his family.
An Australian has lost his savings after fraudsters used a deepfake video of Nick Cave to convince him to invest $130,000 in a fake crypto scam
Jake met a man named Max when the ‘tsunami’ of scammers flooded his inbox.
“It’s a matter of right time, right place – an absolute bull’s-eye,” he said.
‘That’s what I was looking for and he happened to be in the right place at the right time. He didn’t seem pushy and seemed like someone I felt quite comfortable with.’
The pair started talking on the phone and Max said he worked in an office in London.
Max managed to convince Jake to ‘invest’ $370 in the micro trading platform, telling him to wait for the returns to roll in.
When Jake logged back in four months later, the balance on his account had skyrocketed to $67,000.
‘A normal person would look at that and say: too good to be true, goodbye and hang up. I talked to people, I talked to friends, my own 16-year-old son said, ‘This is bullshit,'” Jake said.
“But if you dangle that weird carrot in front of you in the right space at the right time, you’re not listening.”
Max assured Jake that it is in the nature of crypto to fluctuate wildly in value after the 61-year-old asked if it was all too good to be true.
By asking the question, Jake had inadvertently let Max know that he was a novice in crypto trading, a naivete he later learned that scammers love.
Despite not being a ‘money person’, Jake, who wishes to remain anonymous, decided to try his luck after seeing Nick Cave’s false testimony
When it was time for Jake to withdraw the money, he received a suspicious letter telling him that his account had been flagged for possible money laundering.
The only way he could access the cash was to pay a 10 percent deposit to prove he was legitimate, which put Jake in a “vicious cycle.”
Every time he tried to withdraw money, he was given another reason why he needed to deposit more.
In one month, Jake lost his entire $130,000, making one deposit after another, ranging from $4,900 to $18,500.
Jake eventually called a Sydney company to help him withdraw the money, but when he explained the situation they told him he had been scammed.
He had purchased “fake coins,” the company said.
When he realized he had lost all his money and there was no hope of getting it back, Jack said his “stomach dropped to the floor and my brain exploded.”
When Jake tried to withdraw the money, he was told a 10 percent deposit was required, which he paid, but he received many more similar notifications asking for more cash.
Police said Jake was told he was the victim of “criminal activity,” which he prefers to think of as “digital burglary.”
Jake’s mother and sisters have unapologetically criticized his naivety and he said the scam has “broken” his family.
Now Jake is trying to raise awareness of online scams and the tricky new tactics criminals are using to lure people like him.
Scamwatch reported that $43.4 million was lost to social media scams in the first eight months of 2024.
Meta’s crackdown on deepfake fraud has resulted in 8,000 pages and 9,000 celebrity scams being blocked in the first six months since its launch this year.
Among the celebrities featured in fake Facebook ads are David Koch, Gina Rinehart, Anthony Albanese, Larry Emdur and Guy Sebastian.
Andrew Forest is currently suing the platform over its alleged inability to remove scams involving his image.