DeepfakeHigh
Michigan Woman Defrauded in Alleged Tinder Romance Scam Using Purportedly AI-Generated Video Calls
- Occurred
- Feb 10, 2025
- Published
- May 19, 2025
- Source
- AI Incident Database
Summary
A Michigan woman, Beth Hyland, was reportedly defrauded of $26,000 in a romance scam conducted over Tinder, in which the perpetrator, "Richard," used purportedly AI-generated video technology during Skype calls to build trust. The scammer, allegedly part of Nigerian Yahoo Boys networks, reportedly posed as a French construction manager and claimed to need funds for legal and translation services. Hyland reportedly sent funds over several months. She later spoke at a U.S. Senate hearing on dating app fraud.
Developers
- Deepfake technology developers
- Synthetic audio generation technology
Deployers
- Yahoo Boys
- Unknown scammer "Richard"
Harmed parties
- Tinder
- Beth Hyland
Tags
- deepfake
- romance scam
- impersonation
- financial fraud
- Tinder
- syndicated
Classification
Category confidence: 90%
Severity confidence: 85%
Rationale: AI-generated video used in romance scam causing significant financial loss and Senate testimony.
Classifier: Qwen/Qwen3.5-35B-A3B-FP8