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Deepfake video quality fuels romance baiting scams

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Software detects AI scams with more AI tools to come

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U.S. Senate proposes scam bill for dating apps

By Kim Harrisberg and Adam Smith

JOHANNESBURG/LONDON, May 15 (Thomson Reuters Foundation)

- B eth Hyland thought she had met the love of her life on

Tinder.

In reality, the Michigan-based administrative assistant had

been manipulated by an online scam artist who posed as a French

man named 'Richard', used deepfake video on Skype calls and

posted photos of another man to pull off his con.

A 'deepfake' is manipulated video or audio made using

artificial intelligence (AI) to look and sound real. They are

often difficult to detect without specialised tools.

In a matter of months, Hyland, 53, had taken out loans

totalling $26,000, sent 'Richard' the money, and fallen prey to

a classic case of romance baiting or pig butchering, named for

the exploitative way in which scammers cultivate their victims.

A projected 8 million deepfakes will be shared worldwide in

2025, up from 500,000 in 2023, says the British government.

About a fifth of those will be part of romance scams,

according to a January report from cyber firm McAfee.

"It's like grieving a death," Hyland told the Thomson

Reuters Foundation.

"When I saw him on video, it was the same as the pictures he

had been sending me. He looked a little fuzzy, but I didn't know

about deepfakes," she said.

MANIPULATION AND LIES

Hyland lives in Portage, about 230 km west of Detroit, and

had been divorced for four years when she began dating again.

She matched on Tinder with a man whose profile seemed to

complement hers well.

Now, she says this 'perfect match' was likely orchestrated.

'Richard' said he was born in Paris but lived in Indiana and

worked as a freelance project manager for a construction company

that required a lot of travel, including to Qatar.

Months of emotional manipulation, lies, fake photos and

AI-doctored Skype calls followed. The scammer pledged his

undying love but had myriad reasons to miss every potential

meet-up.

Weeks after they matched, 'Richard' convinced Hyland that he

needed her help to pay for a lawyer and a translator in Qatar.

"I told him I was gonna take out loans and he started

crying, telling me no one's ever loved him like this before,"

said Hyland in an online interview.

But 'Richard' kept asking for more money and when Hyland

eventually told her financial advisor what was happening, he

said she was most likely the victim of a romance scam.

"I couldn't believe it, but I couldn't ignore it," said

Hyland.

She confronted 'Richard'; he initially denied it all but

then went silent when Hyland asked him to "prove her wrong" and

return her money.

Police told Hyland they could not take her case further

because there was no "coercion, threat or force involved",

according to a letter from Portage's director of public safety,

seen by the Thomson Reuters Foundation.

The office of public safety - which oversees both the police

and fire services - did not respond to a request for comment.

In an email sent to Hyland after she flagged the scammer's

account to Tinder, which was seen by the Thomson Reuters

Foundation, the company said it removes users who violate their

terms of service or guidelines.

While Tinder said it could not share the outcome of the

investigation due to privacy reasons, it said Hyland's report

was "evaluated" and "actioned in accordance with our policies".

A Tinder spokesperson said the company has "zero tolerance"

of fraudsters and uses AI to root our potential scammers and

warn its users, as well as offering factsheets on romance scams.

In March, Hyland attended a U.S. Senate committee hearing

when a bill was introduced to require dating apps to remove

scammers and notify users who interact with fake accounts.

The senator proposing the bill said Hyland's story showed

why the legislation was needed.

In general, dating apps do not notify users who have

communicated with a scammer once the fraudster's account has

been removed or issue alerts about how to avoid being scammed,

as required in the proposed new bill.

The United States reported more than $4 billion in losses

to pig-butchering scams in 2023, according to the FBI.

Microsoft ( MSFT ), which owns Skype, directed the Thomson Reuters

Foundation to blog posts informing users how to prevent romance

scams and steps it had taken to tackle AI-generated content,

such as adding watermarks to images.

The company did not provide further comment.

Jason Lane-Sellers, a director of fraud and identity at

LexisNexis Risk Solutions, said only 7% of scams are reported,

with victims often held back by shame.

'AI ARMS RACE'

Jorij Abraham, managing director of the Global Anti-Scam

Alliance, a Netherlands-based organisation to protect consumers,

said humans won't be able to detect manipulated media for long.

"In two or three years, it will be AI against AI," he said.

"[Software exists] that can follow your conversation -

looking at the eyes, if they're blinking - these are giveaways

that something is going on that humans can't see, but software

can."

Lane-Sellers from LexisNexis Risk Solutions described it as

an AI "arms race" between scammers and anti-fraud companies

trying to protect consumers and businesses.

Richard Whittle, an AI expert at Salford Business School in

northern England, said he expects future deepfake detection

technology will be built in by hardware makers such as Apple ( AAPL ),

Google, and Microsoft ( MSFT ) who can access users' webcams.

Neither Apple ( AAPL ) nor Google responded to requests for comment

on how they protect consumers against deepfakes, or on future

product developments.

Abraham said the real challenge was to catch the scammers,

who often work in different countries to those they target.

Despite her dead end, Hyland still believes it is good to

report scams and help authorities crack down on scammers.

And she wants scam victims to know it is not their fault.

"I've learned terminology ... we don't lose (money) or give

it away - it's stolen. We don't fall for scams - we're

manipulated and victimised.

(Reporting by Kim Harrisberg @KimHarrisberg. Editing by Lyndsay

Griffiths. The Thomson Reuters Foundation is the charitable arm

of Thomson Reuters. Visit https://www.context.news)