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In early 2025, Spanish police exposed a group of fraudsters in the province of Alicante who, with the help of deepfake videos, defrauded more than 200 unsuspecting investors. The criminals used AI-generated videos featuring world-famous celebrities and ‘earned’ over €19 million from unsuspecting investors. The victims initially made investments, saw fake profits, and then encountered blocked withdrawals from their accounts, additional payments, and other problems. Police officers arrested more than five people and seized fake IDs, gadgets, documents, and weapons.
Claudia's friend, who was directly involved in the events, gave interesting information to investigators and later to journalists when she testified during questioning. So, the story of the AI scam on the Costa Blanca, which affected more than 200 people, is, as they say, no joke.
Claudia never believed in easy money, especially when it came to cryptocurrency. But when Manuel showed her a video in which famous celebrities advised investing in a new financial platform that promised stable returns without risk, she believed it. The ad looked too real to be fake. But she had no idea that this is exactly how the best scams created with artificial intelligence work.
In her memoirs, the happy Claudia always said that Manuel was not just her lover — he was her ally. A former hacker with a dark past, he really wanted to buy his own island in the ocean and a small yacht. From time to time, he came up with various schemes, but this time it was something special. It was Claudia who introduced Manuel to one of the organisers of the scam, Raul. He used to be her lover, and later, he became the face of the scam.
Deepfake videos were created in the basement of an old villa. There, at Raul's request, Claudia hid the weapons. In a niche in the bathroom, behind a false panel — in a place that only the three of them knew about.
In a few months, more than 200 people, including their neighbours, invested in the platform, which promised crazy profits. On the monitors, the graphs were rising, and the accounts were replenishing at a frantic pace. In total, €19 million. It was an illusion of wealth created from pixels and lies.
In the spring of 2025, the Spanish police arrested Raul for a minor offence, and he agreed to cooperate with the investigators... Later, Claudia noticed that he had started wearing long-sleeved shirts, which he had never worn before. When she realised that he had ‘cracked,’ cooperated with the police, and started wearing a microphone under his shirt, it was too late.
They were arrested in Alicante while trying to escape with fake passports.
