The scam shaking Greece: Woman thought she was talking to Cristiano Ronaldo, her money was stolen

An unusual online scam has shocked Patras, Greece, where a woman was convinced that she was communicating directly with Cristiano Ronaldo. She even says she saw the Portuguese star during a video call and heard his voice, without realizing that everything was part of a fraudulent scheme carried out with the help of artificial intelligence.

It all began when the woman was contacted through an online platform by a person who promised that she could receive financial assistance from Cristiano Ronaldo himself. To make the story as convincing as possible, the scammer asked her to make two €50 payments through the IRIS system, promising that the money would be returned to her several times over.

“He told me that Cristiano Ronaldo himself could offer me assistance, but, in order to legalize this action on his part, I would have to make two payments of €50,” the woman said.

What ultimately convinced her that she was not dealing with a scammer was the video call. On the screen, she saw someone who looked like Ronaldo, sitting in what she described as a white luxury car. The person's voice also sounded similar to that of the football star.

“To make sure he wasn't a scammer, he called me on video and I saw him. It was Ronaldo, in a white luxury car, and he was telling me that he helped people in need all over the world,” she recounted.

Convinced that she was genuinely communicating with the Portuguese star, the woman made the requested payments. It was only later that she realized she had fallen into the scammers’ trap.

“I was convinced, I paid the money, but in the end it turned out that I was the victim of a scam,” she said.

The case shows just how convincing online scams have become with the use of artificial intelligence technology. Scammers can manipulate the image, voice, and lip movements of a well-known person, creating videos that appear to victims to be genuine communications.

In such cases, the names and images of celebrities are used to gain victims’ trust and then persuade them to send money or provide personal information. Promises of financial assistance, charity, or quick profits are among the methods used to make the scheme more convincing.

The case in Patras serves as another warning about the dangers of deepfakes: the fact that a person appears in a video and their voice seems authentic is no longer a guarantee that the communication is genuine.

“KORÇA BOOM”