Digital sentimental scams are becoming one of the most insidious forms of crime today, combining false love stories with promises of investment and the increasing use of artificial intelligence. The case of Francisco, a 66-year-old man who lost virtually all of his savings because he believed in a woman who never existed, is just one example of a trend that is spreading rapidly.
It all started with something seemingly banal: a WhatsApp group where high financial gains were promised. Francisco came in, invested small amounts and saw the balance grow, which gave him the confidence to continue. It was in this virtual space that he met “Josefa”, a 47-year-old woman who quickly established a close relationship with him.
According to the 66-year-old man on the Malas Lenguas program, the call was immediate. “He said he was in love with me,” he recalls. The conversations became daily and the supposed companion gained his trust, while encouraging him to invest more and more, according to the Spanish digital newspaper Noticias Trabajo.
Escalation of the coup
After a first phase of apparent gains, Josefa convinced Francisco to transfer new amounts. First, small amounts. Then, he asked him for another 100 thousand euros, paid in stages, in addition to the money he had already invested. In total, the man ended up handing over around 200 thousand euros.
The 66-year-old man guarantees that he even made video calls and that the woman he saw on the screen corresponded to the photographs he had received. However, the show’s investigation revealed that nothing was real.
An identity created by artificial intelligence
The images had been stolen from a real person, but the messages and even the videos were generated by artificial intelligence systems capable of simulating conversations and faces in a highly convincing way, according to the same source.
“I was deceived of 200 thousand euros. I even fell in love with someone who doesn’t exist. I understand that it is artificial intelligence entering the human side to deceive”, said Francisco.
A rapidly growing phenomenon
Inspector José María Benito, from the Spanish National Police, confirms that this type of fraud is evolving rapidly. “We’ve seen criminals creating people with artificial intelligence who can talk to you. It’s a variant of the love scam, but here they told you to invest so that you both make money”, he explained.
According to official data, last year alone the National Police registered more than 1,200 reports of digital sentimental scams in Spain, an increase of 30 percent compared to the previous year.
Behind many of these complaints are fake profiles, stolen photographs and AI systems capable of maintaining long, coherent and emotionally engaging dialogues, making deception increasingly easier, says .
And in Portugal?
In Portugal, this type of fraud is also increasing in a worrying way. The Judicial Police has been warning about the growth of so-called romantic scams and investment scams associated with online relationships, in which victims are tricked into transferring money to people they believe to be romantic partners.
These situations fall under the crime of fraud, provided for in article 217 of the Penal Code, and may become worse when they involve computerized means or losses of high value. Portuguese authorities emphasize that cases are becoming more sophisticated with the use of artificial intelligence, making it increasingly difficult to distinguish true profiles from completely fabricated identities.
Therefore, alerts have multiplied, especially among older people or those with less digital literacy, as this type of crime no longer requires face-to-face meetings and can be committed with just a cell phone, an Internet connection and increasingly realistic AI tools.
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