A 76-year-old retired insurance agent from Brooklyn says he lost more than a million dollars to a sophisticated AI-powered investment scam.
Ron Williams says he received a text message out of nowhere from Jenny, who introduced herself as a 33-year-old Christian woman living in Boston, NBC News reports.
“It was easy communication. It felt very comfortable.”
Williams says Jenny told him that she was making big money in investing and invited him to join her. Over the course of roughly six months, he invested $1.6 million into the platform. Williams says the platform showed that the initial investment grew to $4 million.
Williams says he tried to meet Jenny in person “several times,” but she always had an excuse.
Several months into the relationship, Williams says Jenny told him she had lent him $110,000 for a potentially profitable investment opportunity. When he tried to wire the money back to her, the transfer to China was blocked. Williams says Jenny sent a runner to his home and handed over the cash.
“At this point, I’m wondering, but I’m so deeply in in terms of money that I’m praying that it is true.”
When Williams tried to withdraw the $4 million, Jenny told him he would need to send additional funds to cover taxes. Williams says that it was at that point that he became deeply concerned.
Williams’s son created his own AI-generated video of Jenny to show his father just how easily the technology could be used to fabricate a person’s identity entirely. Williams accepted he had been scammed and reported the incident to the police and the FBI.
“I was devastated, and I felt stupid.”
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