Deepfake romance fraud sees elderly woman lose £140,000

Scammers using deepfake technology and artificial intelligence managed to scam an 80-year old woman out of £140,000 as part of a long-running romance fraud.

Speaking to the BBC's Scam Secrets programme, Helen says her mother truly believed that she was in a relationship with a man she had met online.

In one instance she hollowed out a book, put £10,000 cash inside and posted it to a hospital in Shanghai, China where he said he was awaiting a life-saving operation.

Another time a man got in touch saying he had been kidnapped and if she didn't pay the ransom he would be killed.

Helen says he mother met the scammers on Facebook where they had used AI to changed their appearance and voice in video and voice calls - she was secretive about who she was speaking to, and it got worse when she accidentally sent messages intended for the scammers to her daughter.

Unsure on how to approach the subject without her mother getting defensive, Helen told the BBC that she decided "to try and be calm about this and open up the possibility she could trust me", and convinced her mother to allow her to talk to the scammer on a video call.

She could tell it was a deepfake due to the "fuzzy" image and the voice being out of sync with his movements.

However, when Helen tried to convince her mother that it was not real, she was not believed.

"She was saying I made her feel disgusted and ashamed," she says. "And that I should let her have her relationship and not intervene."

Eventually, Helen turned to her bank as she had a lastin power of attorney for her mother, meaning she could set up safeguards for her accounts, leading to $45,000 being returned.

Helen changed her mother's number three times but her mum continued to give the new one to the scammers - evenutally Helen replaced the smartphone with a basic one that would only make calls and send text messages.

Advice for helping family members who are possibly being scammed

• Ask open questions - be calm and patient to gather information

• Contact their bank - they can put safeguards in place

• Enlist someone impartial - this can help victims open up

• Reset their digital footprint - scammers can't continue if they can't contact them

Dale Richardson, a police fraud protect officer, encourages families to be "curious but not confrontational".

"I like to break it down... and listen to them and say, right, how did you meet? And what have they said?"

Forensic linguist Dr Lis Carter, who is part of the BBC's Scam Secrets team, stresses the importance of being patient and careful with your words.

"Being a family member coming into that, you are 'destroying' that happiness."

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