AI Romance Scam: Retiree Duped into Fake Relationship with ‘James Blunt’ by Clever Con Artist

You’re not beautiful, buddy.

In a chilling tale of deception, a romance scammer wielded artificial intelligence to deceive a “lonely” retiree into thinking she was in a relationship with James Blunt, the singer known for “You’re Beautiful.” Through this elaborate ruse, the scammer managed to extract over $10,000 from the unsuspecting woman.

The fraudster crafted fake AI-enhanced images and videos depicting the charming British pop artist engaging with the 57-year-old Brazilian woman. This clever manipulation kept her ensnared for more than a year, according to a report by the UK Sun.

“I never anticipated him reaching out to me. I was grieving the loss of my mother and brother, and felt incredibly isolated,” shared the woman from Sao Joao da Boa Vista, who chose to remain anonymous.

The deceitful suitor initially reached out to her through a direct message following her comment on the actual singer’s livestream the previous year. He soon overwhelmed her with a barrage of affectionate yet false declarations.

Claiming to be residing in a London hotel post-separation from his wife, the con artist expressed a desire to travel to Brazil to meet her.

He told her he was cash-poor due to a falling out with his “manager,” who blocked his bank accounts, and said he needed a small loan to buy a plane ticket to visit her.

“He told me he had argued with his manager and that they had frozen his account,” the woman recalled. “He said he didn’t even have money to buy food.”

At first, he just asked for several hundred bucks.

“He told me: ‘If you can get me BRL 3,000, ($600) I’ll find the rest and come to Brazil.”

The smitten victim eventually borrowed money from her bank to send to the scammer — but his requests for cash kept coming.

He said his luggage had been stolen in the Sao Paulo airport, that he was stranded at a gas station, and needed money for a long cab ride from Sao Paulo, among other lies. 

She eventually realized she was being scammed when she traveled nearly 75 miles by bus to the city of Campinas last week to meet him and he never showed up.

“When I arrived at the bus terminal, he stopped replying,” she said.

She then did some research and discovered the real James Blunt, 52, was actually touring in Europe at the time.

She blocked the fraudster and reported the con to cops, but said the scam left her heartbroken and humiliated.

“You can’t imagine how much I suffered because of this,” she said. “Who doesn’t fall in love, right?”