2026-09-20T23:22:28.549Z
- publishedAt:
Not provided→ 2026-01-03T00:00:00.000Z
SOURCE-LINKED INTELLIGENCE
Purported Deepfake Impersonating Elon Musk Allegedly Defrauded Elderly U.S. Woman of $50,000 via Gift Card–to-Crypto Scam
An 80-year-old U.S. woman was reportedly deceived by scammers using purportedly AI-generated messages and deepfake media impersonating Elon Musk into believing she was in a romantic relationship with him. The perpetrators allegedly induced her to buy over $50,000 in Apple gift cards to be converted into cryptocurrency, leaving her financially endangered and at risk of foreclosure on her home.
Read original source ↗ Open in workspace
- recordType
- incident-report
- evidenceStatus
- reported
- region
- Global
Reported occurrence date: 2026-01-03T00:00:00.000Z
Evidence & attribution
- AI Incident Database
- AI Incident Database · 2026-01-03T00:00:00.000Z
AI Incident Database, Responsible AI Collaborative; McGregor (2021), Preventing Repeated Real World AI Failures by Cataloging Incidents. Incident-specific contributor credits are available at each citation link. Metadata adapted; article text excluded.
License: CC BY-SA 4.0
First collected: 2026-09-19T22:50:59.123Z. This is not the publication date.
Observed changes
AIIC observation times, not verified publisher revision times. Up to eight recent revisions.