A person in Northern Ireland was scammed out of £250,000 (approximately €291,000) by what police have described as a “sophisticated” AI-generated investment fraud.
It began after the Co Down-based victim responded to an online video featuring a well-known personality from the financial sector.
It offered an investment opportunity with “significant” returns.
After the victim had invested a relatively modest amount, they were contacted via Whatsapp and encouraged to put in more.
If they had the money to invest a quarter of a million into something they did not understand, I would not call them victims. Idiots, maybe, but not victims.
Eh, if you have savings, and family you can borrow money from, and a line of credit, then a quarter million is doable.
People who fall for these scams don’t invest only what they can afford to lose, they invest all the funds they can mobilize.
Fictions? It’s easy to make a mistake isn’t it. We could all be victims in the right circumstances. We can feel compassion and demand more severe punishments for banks that facilitate it (like in my industry) where everyone in the chain has to give the money back and/or give up the id of the party they gave the money to until a culprit is exposed - the victims bank refunds the victim, the bank the money was transferred to returns it to the victims bank, and so on. Where there is a will, there is a way.