LOS ANGELES (KABC) — A woman in South Los Angeles was conned out of thousands of dollars in an alarming scam involving artificial intelligence and a popular “General Hospital” star.
A deepfake video of actor Steve Burton, who plays Jason Morgan on the ABC soap opera, was used to scam the woman out of more than $80,000. 7 On Your Side Investigates showed the video to AI experts, who said the video was likely made with AI software that cloned Burton’s voice and image.
READ MORE | Woman conned out of life savings by scammers using AI to pose as ‘General Hospital’ star
A family says their mother was conned out of her life savings and even sold her condo for a scammer using deepfake videos to pose as a “General Hospital” star.
So how easy is it to make a dupe video like that?
“Whatever you have online, people can take and use,” explained Kathleen Grace, the chief strategy officer for Vermillio, a company that scours social media websites to find fake profiles.
She said the video was likely made in about 15 minutes. To prove that point, Grace and her team made a quick “scam style” video during an interview with 7 On Your Side Investigates.
The AI software they used cost just a few dollars. All you need to do is type a command and AI will spit it out.
“Be aware that a lot of things are not going to be real for the next few years, and that there aren’t going to these guardrails for a while,” said Grace. “It’s going to take time to build the guardrail.”
How to protect yourself from AI scams
A number of new AI laws went into effect this year in California, and there’s currently a bipartisan push in Congress to get AI content clearly marked on social media.
Of course, many scammers are operating out of the county and are not going to follow any law.
So how do you stay safe? First, if anyone in your DMs tries to move the conversation over to an encrypted messaging app like, Telegram or WhatsApp, it’s nearly certain that it’s a scam.
Also, be aware of dupes being made of everyday people. Teenagers are sometimes doing that to cyber bully online, and scammers are making them to trick people into believing their loved ones are in trouble and need cash.
So just be skeptical.
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