Romance scammers are now building trust with AI-generated deepfakes. Here’s how to spot them. [Video]

Does he seem too good to be true? It might be because he’s a romance scammer called a “Yahoo Boy” who wants to steal your life savings.

The Yahoo Boys are an online crime group based out of Nigeria that creates fake online personas and uses them to target victims, according to the Department of Justice. Once gaining the victims’ trust, the scammers use a pretense to solicit money, like the need to pay an emergency medical expense.

Last year alone, the FBI’s Internet Crime Report estimated that Americans lost more than $650 million to romance scams. The Federal Trade Commission, which casts a wider net, reported that, in 2022, these scams netted a whopping $1.3 billion. Many of the victims are older and targeted for their life savings, family inheritances, and retirement funds.

Kate Kleinert, a 69-year-old widow, previously told BI that she lost $39,000to an online romance scam. By the end Kleinart said she had lost most of her …