When the Face is a Deepfake but the Money is Real

A Southern California woman was in love. She was 66 and met who she thought was the man of her dreams online. No, they did not meet in person.

Over the last year, Abigail R. also lost her life savings: more than $81,000 and her home, a paid-off condo she sold for $350,000 and then sent the proceeds to the man she believed was her romantic partner, according to The Los Angeles Times.

It wasn’t a man. It was a Deepfake. And we are seeing people bring these cases to us more and more, but with far more money lost. Once we determine it is a Deepfake, we then identify the scammers by using traditional techniques to follow the emails, phone calls and bank transfers.

The object of Abigail’s affection, she explained to her family, was Steve Burton, an actor on General Hospital, who spoke to her through video messages.

But those missives were deepfakes, generated by AI to recreate Burton’s voice and likeness with such precision that when Ruvalcaba’s daughter confronted her about it, she pushed back. How could it be AI if it sounded just like him?

Increasingly, we see fraud cases where AI is core to the operation. Seldom is it one person acting alone, but these schemes may be run out of scam farms on the other side of the world, where individuals work in shifts to run multiple targets all at once.

Deepfake technology has made these schemes exponentially more convincing (and cheaper for the scammer to operate). But the underlying infrastructure is the same: burner accounts, wallets to move money through jurisdictions that aren’t paying attention, fake identities.

When a client comes to us after a loss like Ruvalcaba’s, they want the money back. But by the time we come to the story, the money is almost certainly gone. By the time proceeds are wired to a scammer, they’ve been layered through many hands.

But we can do identity work. Behind each convincing deepfake is a real person orchestrating the conversation. They script how much money to ask for, what story to tell, how to push back on any doubt. Communications have patterns and red flags. It may not be an easy Google search or an overnight warrant, but it can create a methodology, pattern or network map that can be used to support civil litigation or be handed to law enforcement. Hopefully, it can prevent more victims.

Sometimes we’re brought in to do early detection. A family member notices that a loved one is sending unusual sums to someone they met online just weeks ago. A friend may be acting more secretly. These investigations – before the condo is sold or the money is wired – can have tremendous leverage.

The technology is only improving. The voices more accurate, the faces more compelling.

But the human behavior underneath it doesn’t change. Someone is running the scam, registering the account, writing the messages, and receiving the money. Finding the real person is what we do.

Call for a free consultation at 415-905-0462.