Yahoo Finance Sophisticated scam robs Aussie couple of entire $220,000 superannuation savings
Scammers are using artificial intelligence to copy the face and voices of well-known Aussies.
A Queensland couple have lost their entire superannuation savings after being duped by a deep-fake scam.
Scammers are using artificial intelligence to copy the faces and voices of Australia’s biggest names - including the likes of mining magnates Gina Rinehart and Andrew ‘Twiggy’ Forrest, Dick Smith and A Current Affair’s Ally Langdon - to try to get unsuspecting Aussies to invest in fake business scams.
Paula and Ron fell victim to one such scam, which promised to turn a small investment into big bucks with an online trading scheme.
Have you fallen victim to a scam? Share your story with tamika.seeto@yahooinc.com
Paula told A Current Affair she’d come across scams involving Ally Langdon when scrolling her granddaughter’s school Facebook page and had also seen one of Gina Rinehart doing the rounds.
“There’s a scam going around with Gina Rinehart promoting online trading and you watch her lips and those words are coming from her lips,” Paula said.
The couple shared they previously lost $220,000 meant for their retirement savings by scammers using the same tactics.
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“They put us on a roller coaster ride, highs and lows and highs and lows … from a $350 investment to be talked into actually losing all my superannuation,” Ron told A Current Affair.
"It's horrible, it's the worst feeling, you don't talk to your friends about it because you're embarrassed,” Paula said.
Dick Smith’s warning for Aussies
Entrepreneur Dick Smith said even he was tricked by one of the deep-fake videos using his image to spruik an investment scheme.
“I’m incredibly angry because when I first saw it I thought it was really me, I thought they’d done an interview somewhere that I’d forgotten about but then I realised no it wasn’t,” he told A Current Affair.
Smith is urging Aussies to steer clear of social media advertising.
"I'm saying to fellow Australians, never ever buy anything that's advertised on Facebook and Instagram because you'll probably lose your money,” he said.
The scams have led Rinehart to write to Mark Zuckerberg directly, while Forrest is suing Meta (the owner of Facebook and Instagram).
There are now calls for the government to put more pressure on social media companies to stamp out the scams. But for victims like Ron and Paula, it can be near impossible to get justice.
"The first step in any legal proceeding is working out who you're going to enforce those rights against,” media lawyer Justin Quill said.
"That's the biggest problem here … who do you sue over these sorts of scams? Where do you sue them? And, frankly, how do you sue them?"
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