Venezuela: Man avoids deepfake scam using Cristiano Ronaldo's image

A 70-year-old man in Los Teques, Miranda state, successfully avoided a digital scam involving a deepfake video of footballer Cristiano Ronaldo. The fraud attempt began on Telegram, where scammers used the athlete's profile to inform the victim he had been awarded a $100,000 prize.

To establish credibility, the perpetrators initiated a video call featuring an AI-manipulated image of Ronaldo speaking in English. The scam was exposed when the victim, who understood English, requested that the individual speak in Spanish; the callers immediately disconnected the video feed.

Following the call, the criminals continued to communicate via text, requesting the man's personal identification details and demanding a payment of 20,000 bolívares via mobile transfer to a purported legal representative. The victim recognized the maneuver and refused to send any funds. This incident aligns with recent warnings from the Cuerpo de Investigaciones Científicas, Penales y Criminalísticas (Cicpc) regarding the rise in cybercrimes utilizing deepfake technology to clone voices and images.