Dianne Ringstaff was playing Words with Friends on her cell phone when she received a message from the one and only Keanu Reeves — or, as she would later discover, a scammer pretending to be the Hollywood superstar.
Ringstaff was initially skeptical and refused to believe the John Wick star would reach out to a random woman and start a conversation, but after a video chat with the alleged Reeves — as well as multiple phone calls with a voice that sounded just like him — her skepticism began to fade.
“It can’t be,” Ringstaff initially said to herself, according to Fox 13 News. “Until he videoed me, and I was like, oh my God, that’s him!”
Ringstaff wound up staying in touch with the alleged Reeves for two and a half years, but the seemingly innocent chats turned out to be a costly error. Before realizing she was being duped, Ringstaff unfortunately sent $160,000 to someone she later discovered was using artificial intelligence to impersonate the actor.
Here’s how it all happened, along with some tips on how to avoid falling victim to a similar scam.
How an AI scam led to a huge financial loss
According to Ringstaff, she talked with the scammer who was pretending to be Reeves for a long time before the requests for money began
The alleged Reeves also seemed to have good reasons for needing the money, telling Ringstaff that not only was he being sued by a former manager, but the FBI had also planted drugs in his home and the courts froze his assets during the investigation. The scammer told Ringstaff she needed to send him tens of thousands of dollars in Bitcoin and cryptocurrency in order to get out of this mess.
“I said, ‘but why don’t you have a bank account?'” said Ringstaff, who lives in Tampa Bay, Florida. But since she believed the faux-Keanu’s story and wanted to help, Ringstaff took out a home equity loan and sold her car in order to send the scammer $160,000.
She also provided the scammer with personal information, which — according to the Marion County Sheriff’s Office — had enabled the scammer to funnel money from other victims into her accounts.
The entire ordeal left Ringstaff feeling embarrassed and gullible. “I just hope that nobody is as stupid and naive as I was,” said Ringstaff.
