DeepfakeHigh
Yahoo Boys Allegedly Used Deepfake Technology to Impersonate Brad Pitt and Defraud French Woman of $850,000 in Romance Scam
- Occurred
- Jan 12, 2025
- Published
- Jan 14, 2025
- Source
- AI Incident Database
Summary
Three Nigerian "Yahoo Boys" scammers allegedly used AI-generated image manipulation tools, along with fake social media and WhatsApp accounts, to reportedly impersonate actor Brad Pitt and convince a French interior decorator, Anne, that she was in a romantic relationship with him. Over 18 months, they allegedly fabricated selfies and messages, reportedly leading Anne to divorce her husband and transfer $850,000 under the false pretense that Pitt needed money for kidney treatment while his accounts were frozen.
Developers
- Deepfake technology developers
Deployers
- Yahoo Boys
- Scammers impersonating Brad Pitt
- Brouteurs
Harmed parties
- General public susceptible to AI-enhanced scams
- Brad Pitt
- Anne (French interior decorator)
Tags
- deepfake
- impersonation
- scam
- fraud
- syndicated
Classification
Category confidence: 95%
Severity confidence: 90%
Rationale: Deepfake technology used to impersonate celebrity for financial fraud causing significant monetary loss.
Classifier: Qwen/Qwen3.5-35B-A3B-FP8