Deepfake impersonating Elon Musk allegedly defrauded elderly woman of $50,000
An 80-year-old U.S. woman reportedly lost over $50,000 in Apple gift cards she purchased to send to someone impersonating Elon Musk via deepfake communications, believing he was her boyfriend and claiming the government had frozen his assets. The scam reportedly caused her to fall behind on mortgage payments and consider selling her home.
What happened
An 80-year-old woman reportedly purchased more than $50,000 in Apple gift cards from various stores and gave them to someone claiming to be Elon Musk, believing he was her boyfriend.
According to the woman, the person told her the government had frozen his assets and asked her to convert the gift cards to Bitcoin for him.
A criminal may have created deepfake videos or recordings of Musk using the mother's name and engaging in fraudulent conversations to facilitate the scam.
Reported impact
The woman fell 10 months behind on a $28,000 mortgage on her home that was previously paid off and was facing foreclosure.
She was also in talks to sell her house to a company that buys homes as-is, potentially accepting a lowball offer.
Index analysis
During the first half of 2025, victims lost $410 million to deepfake scams, according to Surfshark.
In 2023, people over the age of 60 lost more than $3.4 billion to cyber scams, and there was a 14% increase in complaints filed with the Internet Crime Complaint Center among older victims compared to the prior year.
Classification
Sources and evidence
This record was researched and written by the Index, based on the following original reporting.