Recently, Spanish police cracked a rare high-tech cryptocurrency scam involving an amount of 19 million euros (approximately 150 million yuan), with at least 208 victims, and six suspects were arrested in the provinces of Granada and Alicante, aged between 34 and 57 years old.
The gang not only used AI to create deepfake videos of celebrities to deceive victims, but some victims were scammed three times by the gang with schemes such as "funds freezing" and "tax payment to unlock funds."
The AI-forged "perfect scam" triple harvesting, some people were scammed three times
A victim from Granada was scammed three times in this series of scams, losing a total of 624,000 euros (approximately 5.009 million yuan).
The first layer of the scam: Using AI celebrity ads to induce investment;
This scam initially used AI-generated deepfake celebrity videos as bait, posting "risk-free high-return" cryptocurrency investment ads on online platforms to lure victims. The scam gang used algorithms to precisely target the audience, first giving small profits to build trust, then inducing them to increase their investments.
However, when victims tried to withdraw larger amounts, the platform would find various excuses to prevent withdrawals. Just when the victims realized they were scammed, the scam did not stop there—it instead started the "second round of harvesting."
The second layer of the scam: Posing as a "specialist" to recover funds, demanding payment to unfreeze funds;
The third layer of the scam: Impersonating the European police organization or British lawyers, claiming to have successfully recovered the investments, but requiring the payment of "taxes" before withdrawal.
The mastermind of the gang, planning to flee to Dubai, was arrested with over 50 fake identities
During the police raid, a large amount of evidence was seized, including computers, mobile phones, and forged documents. The criminal organization had registered several shell companies across Spain for money laundering and used multiple fake identities, with just the mastermind alone using over 50 different identities to hide his tracks, preparing to flee to Dubai before being arrested.
It is reported that the case involved 208 scam incidents, and the police have frozen about 100,000 euros of the involved funds, but this is only a small part of the overall scammed funds.
