Aniston is the latest celebrity to be involved in a major deepfake scam.<\/p>[\/et_pb_text][et_pb_text module_class=”credit-name” _builder_version=”4.20.4″ _module_preset=”default” text_font=”Black Han Sans|||on|||||” text_text_color=”#000000″ header_4_font=”|||on|||||” header_4_text_align=”center” text_orientation=”center” custom_margin=”||0px||false|false” hover_enabled=”0″ global_colors_info=”{}” theme_builder_area=”post_content” sticky_enabled=”0″]
Words by Daisy Hall<\/strong><\/p>[\/et_pb_text][et_pb_image src=”https:\/\/flatplan-plus-content.s3.eu-west-1.amazonaws.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/6\/2025\/07\/GettyImages-2163995155-1-scaled.jpg” alt=”Jennifer Aniston” title_text=”Celebrity Sightings In New York City – July 27, 2024″ force_fullwidth=”on” _builder_version=”4.20.4″ _module_preset=”default” hover_enabled=”0″ global_colors_info=”{}” theme_builder_area=”post_content” sticky_enabled=”0″][\/et_pb_image][et_pb_text _builder_version=”4.20.4″ _module_preset=”default” hover_enabled=”0″ global_colors_info=”{}” theme_builder_area=”post_content” sticky_enabled=”0″] Would you help out a celeb in need if they asked you to? Paul Davies from Southampton certainly would. In fact, he thought he had.<\/p>\n The latest victim of deepfake fraud, Paul, 43, sent a scammer pretending to be Friends actress Jennifer Aniston \u00a3200 worth of non-refundable Apple gift cards after they requested them on social media in order to pay for their \u2018Apple subscriptions\u2019. In the message exchange between Paul and the scammer, the fake Jennifer Aniston sends pictures saying things like, \u2018What time will you send it to me my love\u2019 and \u2018Are you there my love\u2019. Hoping to educate other people on the rise of deepfake scams, he told The Sun, \u2018I\u2019ve had fake videos from Jennifer Aniston saying she loves me and asking for \u00a3200. I believed it \u2013 and I paid. I got bitten. Once bitten, twice shy.\u2019<\/p>\n He continued, \u2018They make it look so real. It\u2019s been going on for five months. I thought someone would get in trouble for this, but they seem to be having a laugh\u2026 and getting away with it.\u2019<\/p>[\/et_pb_text][et_pb_image src=”https:\/\/flatplan-plus-content.s3.eu-west-1.amazonaws.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/6\/2025\/07\/GettyImages-1915834714-scaled.jpg” _builder_version=”4.20.4″ _module_preset=”default” theme_builder_area=”post_content” alt=”Jennifer Aniston” title_text=”81st Annual Golden Globe Awards – Arrivals” hover_enabled=”0″ sticky_enabled=”0″][\/et_pb_image][et_pb_text _builder_version=”4.20.4″ _module_preset=”default” hover_enabled=”0″ global_colors_info=”{}” theme_builder_area=”post_content” sticky_enabled=”0″] He isn\u2019t the only one. Earlier this year, it was revealed that a French woman was conned out of \u00a3700,000 by someone impersonating actor Brad Pitt.<\/p>\n After the scammer got in touch with her via social media, the 53-year-old woman became convinced that she was sending the actor \u2013 who she believed that she had entered into a romantic relationship with – money for cancer treatment. The scammer backed up their story by going so far as to send her faked images of the World War Z actor in a hospital bed, where he was supposedly undergoing treatment for kidney cancer.<\/p>\n Eventually the woman realised what was going on when she saw pictures of the real Brad Pitt on holiday with his girlfriend Ines de Ramon. Explaining why she had fallen for the scam in an interview with French broadcaster TF1 she admitted, \u2018There are few men who write to you like that. I loved the man I was talking to. He knew how to talk to women and it was very well put together. After the real Brad Pitt learned of the scam a spokesperson for the actor said, \u2018It\u2019s awful that scammers take advantage of the strong bond between fans and celebrities. This is an important reminder not to respond to unsolicited online messages, especially from actors who are not present on social networks.\u2019<\/p>\n Scarlett Johansson \u2013 who is currently starring in Jurassic World Rebirth \u2013 has also called out the misuse of AI after a deepfake video was circulated in February 2025. The video seemingly showed her and other deepfaked celebrities including David Schwimmer,\u00a0 Jerry Seinfeld, Steven Spielberg, Adam Sandler, Sacha Baron Cohen, Natalie Portman and Lenny Kravitz calling out Kanye West\u2019s antisemitic comments.<\/p>[\/et_pb_text][et_pb_text module_class=”custom-quote” _builder_version=”4.20.4″ _module_preset=”default” header_2_font=”Libre Bodoni|||on|||||” header_2_text_align=”center” header_2_text_color=”#333333″ header_2_font_size=”40px” header_2_line_height=”1.2em” global_colors_info=”{}” theme_builder_area=”post_content”] In a statement Scarlett, 40, said, \u2018It has been brought to my attention by family members and friends, that an AI-generated video featuring my likeness, in response to an antisemitic view, has been circulating online and gaining traction. I am a Jewish woman who has no tolerance for antisemitism or hate speech of any kind. But I also firmly believe that the potential for hate speech multiplied by AI is a far greater threat than any one person who takes accountability for it. We must call out the misuse of AI, no matter its messaging, or we risk losing a hold on reality.\u2019<\/p>\n Currently it is difficult to legally challenge deepfake images, but legislation is starting to be introduced around the world. Indeed, a bill introduced in America requires \u2018generative artificial intelligence to disclose that their output has been generated by artificial intelligence\u2019.<\/p>\n But James Grimmelmann – a Tech and Law professor \u00a0at Cornell University – says more needs to be done. \u2018Deepfaking specific actors for use in commercially distributed films is probably a right of publicity violation’, he explains. \u2018The right of publicity doesn\u2019t apply to private non-commercial uses. Where it becomes illegal is when it\u2019s commercially exploited.<\/p>\n \u2018It\u2019s unethical to pass off a deepfake as an actual video; that\u2019s a kind of lying. It\u2019s more ethically ambiguous when the deepfake is acknowledged to be one, because this gets at hard and contested questions about how much we ought to be able to control how other people think about and talk about us.\u2019<\/p>\n He concluded, \u2018Celebrities cannot avoid it. There are too many photos and videos of them already available, and their jobs basically require them to be publicly visible.\u2019<\/p>[\/et_pb_text][et_pb_divider color=”#111111″ divider_position=”center” divider_weight=”2px” module_class=”custom-divider” _builder_version=”4.20.4″ _module_preset=”default” custom_margin=”0px||0px||false|false” custom_padding=”0px||0px||false|false” global_colors_info=”{}” theme_builder_area=”post_content”][\/et_pb_divider][et_pb_text module_class=”credit-texts” _builder_version=”4.20.4″ _module_preset=”default” text_font=”|||on|||||” text_orientation=”center” global_colors_info=”{}” theme_builder_area=”post_content”] Photos: <\/b>Getty<\/p>[\/et_pb_text][\/et_pb_column][\/et_pb_row][\/et_pb_section]\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" It’s not the only one recently.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":11,"featured_media":11779,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_et_pb_use_builder":"on","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","_lmt_disableupdate":"","_lmt_disable":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-11774","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-feature"],"acf":[],"modified_by":"guestgrazia","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/flatplanplus.io\/grazia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11774","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/flatplanplus.io\/grazia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/flatplanplus.io\/grazia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/flatplanplus.io\/grazia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/11"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/flatplanplus.io\/grazia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=11774"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/flatplanplus.io\/grazia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11774\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":11781,"href":"https:\/\/flatplanplus.io\/grazia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11774\/revisions\/11781"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/flatplanplus.io\/grazia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/11779"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/flatplanplus.io\/grazia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=11774"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/flatplanplus.io\/grazia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=11774"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/flatplanplus.io\/grazia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=11774"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
The Brit revealed that he\u2019s received multiple clips and photos of seeming celebrities recently, but fell for the Jennifer Aniston scam when she appeared to send him her driving licence as proof of her identity.<\/p>\n
We\u2019re talking about Brad Pitt here and I was stunned. At first, I thought it was fake, but I didn\u2019t really understand what was happening to me.\u2019<\/p>\n‘we risk losing a hold on reality.’<\/span><\/h2>[\/et_pb_text][et_pb_code _builder_version=”4.20.4″ _module_preset=”default” global_colors_info=”{}” theme_builder_area=”post_content”][\/et_pb_code][et_pb_text _builder_version=”4.20.4″ _module_preset=”default” hover_enabled=”0″ global_colors_info=”{}” theme_builder_area=”post_content” sticky_enabled=”0″]