Deepfake Mark Ruffalo scams manga artist Chikae Ide

Occurred: September 2022

Japanese manga artist Chikae Ide was scammed of over half a million US dollars after being tricked by a deepfake version of Marvel's Hulk actor Mark Ruffalo.

The Asahi Shimbun tells how Chikae Ide was contacted on Facebook by someone claiming to be Ruffalo, who built an emotional trust with her, 'met' on video, developed a romantic online relationship, and were unofficially married online.

After the 'marriage', the scammer continually asked for thousands of dollars for plane tickets, hospital bills, and cash troubles, and even faked having cancer. Police have been unable to identify the person posing as Mark Ruffalo. 

The saga is told in Ide's new book Poison Love, and fictionalised in a comic with the same title.

Deepfake

Deepfakes (a portmanteau of 'deep learning' and 'fake') are images, videos, or audio which are edited or generated using artificial intelligence tools, and which may depict real or non-existent people. They are a type of synthetic media.

Source: Wikipedia 🔗

System 🤖

Operator:  
Developer: 

Country: Japan

Sector: Media/entertainment/sports/arts

Purpose: Defraud

Technology: Deepfake - video; Machine learning
Issue: Impersonation; Ethics/values

Transparency: Governance; Marketing; Privacy

Page info
Type: Incident
Published: January 2023