{"slug": "elon-musk-scam-targets-woman-on-whatsapp-with-ai-generated-voice-messages-and", "title": "'Elon Musk' Scam Targets Woman on WhatsApp With AI-Generated Voice Messages and Gift Card Requests", "summary": "Criminals impersonating Elon Musk and other celebrities on WhatsApp are using AI-generated voice messages to convince victims, primarily women, to buy gift cards, with Surrey Police reporting that women account for 80% of celebrity impersonation cases in Surrey and Sussex. One Sussex victim lost £275,000 ($373,000), and a Surrey woman's scam lasted three years and seven months, absorbing her entire benefits payment. The FBI reported that Americans aged 60 and over filed more than 201,000 complaints with its Internet Crime Complaint Center in 2025, with losses above $7.7B (£5.7B).", "body_md": "# 'Elon Musk' Scam Targets Woman on WhatsApp With AI-Generated Voice Messages and Gift Card Requests\n\n## Gift card scams involving fake celebrity profiles are on the rise, with women being the primary victims\n\nCriminals impersonating Elon Musk and other well known figures are talking victims into buying gift cards. In Surrey and Sussex, women account for 80% of those caught in [celebrity impersonation](https://www.ibtimes.co.uk/celebrity-deepfake-scams-explode-ai-passes-8m-files-fans-are-losing-everything-1770783) cases, Surrey Police said in a fraud bulletin published in February.\n\nConventional romance fraud across the two counties is roughly evenly split between men and women.\n\nThe same approach is visible in a screenshot posted to Reddit's r/scammers forum this month. A woman's WhatsApp lists a contact called Elon Musk, his photograph set beside a US mobile number carrying a Texas area code. The messages arriving from it ask for gift cards.\n\nHer son posted it with a request for advice. His mother believes she is talking to a real person, he wrote. She receives AI-generated voice notes that appear to come from Musk and others, telling her she is loved, and the account has asked her for gift cards and floated a wire transfer. 'How do I stop these scammers?' he asked.\n\nShe also believes she is in contact with Donald Trump and Jesus. The account has no connection to Musk. Criminals take photographs and videos that are already public, then build profiles around them, the force said.\n\nHis mother lives on social security payments and a small bank pension, he wrote, and he has no access to her bank accounts. She has refused to see a doctor, insisting she is fine. Taking her phone away would change nothing, he added, because she would replace it.\n\n## Where the Fake Elon Musk Scam Sits in Police Data\n\nReports have climbed sharply over the past year from victims convinced they are in a relationship with a celebrity, the force said. Musk is among the names criminals borrow most often, alongside Keanu Reeves, Emma Watson, and Kevin Costner.\n\nThe route the conversations take is consistent. Contact tends to start on Facebook, Instagram, or a dating site before moving to WhatsApp or Telegram, the force said, and excuses follow for why a live video call cannot happen.\n\nThe sums run high. One Sussex victim lost £275,000 ($373,000). A woman in Surrey told officers, 'I had to buy him gift cards.' What started as a £20 ($27) request eventually absorbed her whole benefits payment, she said, leaving nothing for her grandchildren's presents or her household bills. It continued for three years and seven months.\n\n## Gift Cards and Voice Cloning in the Elon Musk Scam\n\nRetail gift cards sit on the FBI's list of scam warning signs, alongside requests to wire money, unsolicited calls and texts, and offers that look too good to be true. Money that leaves by those routes seldom returns. The bureau describes recovery as difficult and unlikely, particularly where the operation is run from overseas.\n\nIts most recent figures set out the scale. Americans aged 60 and over filed more than 201,000 complaints with the FBI's Internet Crime Complaint Center in 2025 and reported losses above $7.7B (£5.7B). Complaints rose 37% in 2024 and losses 59%. The average reported loss passed $38,000 (£28,000), and at least 12,400 older victims each lost $100,000 (£74,000) or more.\n\nTwo things make that age group worth targeting, according to the bureau: savings built up across a working life, and loneliness that makes a stranger's message worth answering. Older victims are also more likely to engage with an unsolicited call, text, or email in the first place.\n\n## Stopping the Payments When a Relative Will Not Listen\n\nSurrey Police points to a check anyone can run. Any photograph can be put through a reverse image search, using Google Lens, TinEye, or a similar service, before money changes hands.\n\nA picture that also turns up on fan pages or in press archives belongs to someone whose identity has been taken. Victims in the two counties are asked to call 101.\n\nThe victimised woman's son was also urged to approach the bank. Confidentiality rules stop staff discussing a customer's account with a relative, though a [family member](https://www.ibtimes.co.uk/family-outsmarts-scammers-reclaims-30000-1812263) who can verify their own identity may be able to have it marked as belonging to a vulnerable person.\n\nRon Miller, a special agent in the FBI's Washington Field Office, reduces the advice to ignoring unsolicited contact altogether. 'Just don't engage', he said.\n\nThe post does not say how much the woman has already handed over, whether any of it has been reported to police, or whether her bank has been alerted. No arrests have been announced.\n\n© Copyright IBTimes 2025. All rights reserved.", "url": "https://wpnews.pro/news/elon-musk-scam-targets-woman-on-whatsapp-with-ai-generated-voice-messages-and", "canonical_source": "https://www.ibtimes.co.uk/surrey-sussex-women-celebrity-impersonation-scams-1814806", "published_at": "2026-08-18 09:45:48+00:00", "updated_at": "2026-08-18 10:12:16.886509+00:00", "lang": "en", "topics": ["artificial-intelligence", "ai-ethics", "ai-policy"], "entities": ["Elon Musk", "Surrey Police", "FBI", "WhatsApp", "Reddit", "Donald Trump", "Keanu Reeves", "Emma Watson"], "alternates": {"html": "https://wpnews.pro/news/elon-musk-scam-targets-woman-on-whatsapp-with-ai-generated-voice-messages-and", "markdown": "https://wpnews.pro/news/elon-musk-scam-targets-woman-on-whatsapp-with-ai-generated-voice-messages-and.md", "text": "https://wpnews.pro/news/elon-musk-scam-targets-woman-on-whatsapp-with-ai-generated-voice-messages-and.txt", "jsonld": "https://wpnews.pro/news/elon-musk-scam-targets-woman-on-whatsapp-with-ai-generated-voice-messages-and.jsonld"}}