A man in Shanghai, China became 200,00 yuan (approximately RM120,000) poorer after transferring money to his long-distance “girlfriend”, who turned out to be an artificial intelligence (AI).
The unfortunate man, Liu, fell victim to the modus operandi of a scam syndicate that operates using AI software to create realistic images and videos of young women to lure victims. In Liu’s case, he fell in love with “Ms. Jiao”, reported CCTV News.
What was thought to be a genuine love story ended up as a huge financial loss, and “Ms. Jiao” started borrowing money from Liu for various reasons such as business investments and surgery expenses for a family member.
“Ms. Jiao” even showed him her identity card
To convince Liu, “Ms. Jiao” even produced her identity card and assured him that she was indeed a real person.
The woman also shared her family members’ medical records and her purchase orders for her “business”, and Liu fell into the trap.
He transferred money to Ms. Jiao online, despite never meeting the woman in real life after talking to her for 2 months.
Liu then became suspicious of the woman he had been talking to and felt something was fishy, so he called the police who broke the bad news to Liu about the scam syndicate.
The Chinese authorities also found pictures that “Ms. Jiao” sent to Liu, which showed her living her daily life like a regular person.
Always be careful when meeting people online and never send money to someone you don’t know!
Also read: Foreign-Controlled Scam Syndicate Makes Up to RM150,000 Per Day by Operating from 17 Bungalows in KL
