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Florida man says his wife ‘wants a divorce’ after he lost $45,000 on an AI-generated Elon Musk car scam (www.independent.co.uk)

submitted 5 days ago by resipsaloquitur@lemmy.world to c/nottheonion@lemmy.world

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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.

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[–] MyMindIsLikeAnOcean@piefed.world 25 points 5 days ago* (last edited 5 days ago) (31 children)

He’s an idiot…but his wife is also likely a gold digger?

…but at the same time he’s old and shouldn’t be expected to be tech savvy. I’m always worried about the viral nonsense my elderly mom falls for. If mom didn’t have a son like me drilling it into her head that everything is fake…theydve got her money by now.

What don’t understand is why isn’t social media fucking complicit for allowable these ads? Back in the 80s you couldn’t tell a white lie in a TV commercial or else you’d get fined…but YouTube and Facebook aren’t even required to have actual people checking the ads people post on their site?

[–] arc99@lemmy.world 4 points 5 days ago (1 children)

You don't have to be tech savvy to realise the adage "if it sounds too good to be true...". I would have thought Americans of all people would develop armour against scams. But even a modicum of due diligence like asking relatives, or googling his situation might have protected him.

I should add that my dad is 80 and housebound and gets scam calls all the time and bats them off like flies so being old is not an excuse.

[–] MyMindIsLikeAnOcean@piefed.world 0 points 5 days ago

I said he was stupid. What do you want from me?

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