A woman from Saxony has lost more than one million euros after falling victim to an AI-generated video scam. The victim, from Lichtenberg in central Saxony, was deceived by a fake video of the ZDF talk show “Markus Lanz,” in which a supposed financial expert spoke about a lucrative investment opportunity. A link to the investment was included directly in the video, police in Chemnitz announced on Monday.
The victim visited the website named in the video, called “Investhub 3.0,” registered an account, and was immediately contacted by a woman and subsequently by a supposed broker. The financial adviser talked her into what appeared to be profitable investments in gold, oil resources, and cryptocurrencies, leading her to initially invest just under 250 euros.
Through phone calls and messages on online services, the fraudsters managed to keep the woman engaged for months. She repeatedly transferred money to various accounts, sometimes 10,000 euros, sometimes more than 460,000 euros.
It was only when the calls from the supposed financial adviser stopped, and after she had already invested more than one million euros, that the woman realized she had fallen victim to investment fraud. She then reported the case to the criminal police.
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