cross-posted from: https://reddthat.com/post/56223456
George Hendricks, a 69-year-old from Leesburg, a suburb of Orlando, told ClickOrlando he lost $45,000 after a scammer targeted him with a deepfake video of Musk. Deepfakes are digitally-altered videos often used to impersonate notable public figures.
Now, Hendricks tells the outlet that his wife “wants to get a divorce” over the scam.
It’s kind of worrying that that’s all it took to get him to drain his bank account. The Elon Musk deep fake was probably unnecessary, he seems like the type to fall for the very obvious Nigerian Prince scam of old.
The old saying goes, it’s impossible to fool and honest man, and I don’t know if that’s necessarily true or not, but it’s definitely easier to con someone who genuinely thinks it’s posable to get something for nothing. People like that tend to not take responsibility for their own lives and think that the world owes them something. People like that are a con man’s best friend.