She was scammed out of more than 400,000 euros on a dating site, due to manipulation generated by AI

The dangers of the internet and even more so of dating sites are still very present today. Many take advantage of the romantic distress of some to set up well-crafted scams, as was the case for this 37-year-old woman, Shreya Datta. Contacted by AFP, she recounts the ordeal she experienced, but also the enormous sum she was defrauded of after being skillfully manipulated by a man.

It is only today when she has the necessary perspective that she explains that she had the feeling that her “ brain has been hacked» in the face of the perfectly studied scam of the man in question. It was by using AI (artificial intelligence) that the latter managed to put together a scenario from scratch using video and photo tricks to fool the thirty-year-old.

It all started on a dating app

It is on a dating application that Shreya Datta gets to know a certain Ancel. After numerous discussions, the man who claims to be a French wine trader and investor suggests that he use more personal means of communication such as Whatsapp. Then begins daily exchanges between them consisting of selfies, emoticons, video calls and companionship.

An idyllic relationship which in the end is only based on a lie since the man actually uses“deepfakes», videos produced using artificial intelligence whose realism is deeply credible. Clever, he keeps finding excuses to postpone the face-to-face meeting, but to make amends he sends a bouquet of flowers to the thirty-something for Valentine’s Day. This is how the man gains Shreya’s trust, little by little he tells her about very successful investments that he would have made to be able to retire early: “He said to me: I accumulated all this money by investing, do you really want to work until age 65?»

A cryptocurrency scam

Blinded by the love she has for him, this immigrant from India then follows his advice to the letter. He sends him a download link for an application supposed to allow him to make profits quickly and easily by investing in cryptocurrency which is in fact a fraudulent application. If she starts with small amounts, very quickly she finds that the profits continue to grow. She realizes today: “When you make astronomical gains with these trades, it disrupts your perception of risk“.

This is when the infernal spiral begins, she pays all of her savings into this application, plus borrowed money as well as her entire retirement fund, more than 450,000 dollars! Theoretically, according to the application, her investment seems to have doubled online even though she only started the experience with Ancel three months ago. When Shreya wants to withdraw her money, the app system asks her “a tax», a quack which puts a flea in his ear. His brother then tries to find out more about this famous Ancel, he finds a photo of him on the Internet and realizes that he is actually a German fitness influencer.

450,000 dollars gone up in smoke…

She then quickly understands that she has been cheated out of the entire amount: “When I realized it was all a scam, that all the money was gone, I experienced symptoms of post-traumatic stress. I couldn’t sleep or eat…I wasn’t really there anymore“. Followed by a psychologist, she explains that she launched procedures with the authorities without much hope of getting her hands on this sum of money and that she had to move to less expensive accommodation.

The worst for the thirty-year-old: facing the judgments of those close to her as well as strangers. However, it is important to know that Shreya’s case is not an isolated case, and that there is no shame in being a victim of this type of highly sophisticated fraud, as the California prosecutor explains, Erin West. In 2023, more than 40,000 reports of cryptocurrency fraud were made to the FBI for a total amount of $3.5 billion.

The people? A whole world! Passionate about the media, networks, series, films, and investigative investigations of all kinds, it was natural that Jessica turned to writing and that she takes…