George Hendricks, a 69-year-old from Leesburg, a suburb of Orlando, told ClickOrlando he lost $45,000 after a scammer targeted him with a deepfake video of Musk. Deepfakes are digitally-altered videos often used to impersonate notable public figures.

Now, Hendricks tells the outlet that his wife “wants to get a divorce” over the scam.

    • harmbugler@piefed.social
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      1 day ago

      A significant exception is if they need more money to make their money e.g., they need to build a factory to manufacture the product. If a bank won’t lend to them on agreeable terms, they may try raising equity capital in which case they will be very eager for you to buy in (on their terms of course).

      • pinball_wizard@lemmy.zip
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        1 day ago

        All of this, except no - Not at all for you and I.

        At least not until we join the ranks of full fledged billionaires, right after monkeys fly out of my butt.

        • Yondoza@sh.itjust.works
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          21 hours ago

          Yes for you and I… It happens every day. Lending money to businesses is called the bond market. Supplying capital to in exchange for equity is called the stock market.

          They are absolutely open to the public if you have the capital. Wealth inequality is a huge problem that we should discuss. When we discuss it we shouldn’t make false claims in our frustration.

          • pinball_wizard@lemmy.zip
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            20 hours ago

            You’re right. Thank you.

            I don’t mean to claim that markets for us to purchase investments don’t exist. My claim is that those markets aren’t favorable to us.

            In particular, it is silly to imagine that a sound investment is going to come to me, instead of to someone with more capital and paid researchers and strong connections.

            My (non-billionaire) situation guarantees that anyone courting my investment dollar has a higher probability to be providing either a poor investment or a scam.

            Index funds are a wonderful innovation to help address this problem, but they do not completely solve it.

    • SaveTheTuaHawk@lemmy.ca
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      18 hours ago

      It wasn’t just about a car, the scammers knew Florida Boomers are greedy fucks who expect to make free money, this mark thought he was going to make $120K on a $10K investment.

    • laranis@lemmy.zip
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      19 hours ago

      That whole category of how to get quick rich books is a scammy scam that people who don’t understand money fall for. A lot of times they’re wrapped up in pyramid schemes but not always. Buyer beware.

  • Ininewcrow@piefed.ca
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    A divorce probably to cut their losses so that he can claim bankruptcy, reaarange their finances and save as much as possible.

  • xxce2AAb@feddit.dk
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    That’s fair. She can clearly do better, and who knows what a man like that might do next? He certainly doesn’t.

  • MedicsOfAnarchy@lemmy.world
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    1 day ago

    “My good friend Mr. George, I just want you to listen to what I’m telling you. I promise that you’re going to receive your package.”

    How do you not say that in Apu’s voice?

  • SaveTheTuaHawk@lemmy.ca
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    18 hours ago

    Holy shit…either brain COVID or lead poisoning, but now one can be this naturally stupid:

    In the video, obtained by ClickOrlando, an AI-generated, deepfake version of Musk said: “My good friend Mr. George, I just want you to listen to what I’m telling you. I promise that you’re going to receive your package.”

    then

    Hendricks was told he had to pay $7,500 in cash for the car’s shipping, which he sent to the scammers.

    And of course, because he’s a Boomer who deserves free money:

    He was also asked to make a $10,000 investment and was promised a $120,000 return

    After exchanging several messages with the scammers, he says he drained his accounts and sent them nearly $37,000 more.

    oh MAGA…always double down on stupid.