NORTH OLMSTED, Ohio – A man told North Olmsted police that he was scammed out of $2,000 by someone on social media who he thought was actress Reese Witherspoon, according to a police report.
An officer told the man that he was actually conversing with a fraudster who used artificial intelligence-generated video to deceive him.
The man told an officer on April 23 that for about two years he had been communicating with someone on the social media platform Telegram who he thought was the famous American actress and film producer. On February 14, the bogus “Reese Witherspoon” told the man to buy $700 in Apple gift cards and send them to her manager. The victim complied but then became suspicious of the supposed manager and decided to send future payments directly to the person he thought was the actress. In total, the victim sent $2,000 from gift cards, which he had charged to a credit card…