Man scammed out of $27,000 by AI "girlfriend"

Updated March 4, 2025, 6 a.m. | By East Coast Breakfast / Skyye Ndlovu

A man recently lost $27,000 after being scammed by his AI girlfriend. Yep – that's how crazy AI is getting.

Online dating has always been a bit of a gamble. You never know what to expect. Will they look like their pictures? Are they even real?

One man recently took the worst possible bet and lost big.

A Chinese man, identified as Mr Liu, discovered that his long-distance girlfriend wasn’t only not the love of his life but not even a person.

She was an AI-generated illusion, designed by scammers to milk him dry. Oh, and milk him they did – to the tune of 200,000 yuan (roughly $27,000 or R500,000)

AI-powered romance has been booming lately, with everything from virtual girlfriends to AI-generated celebrity companions.

What was once an amusing curiosity has now become a playground for scammers, who are using AI to craft hyper-realistic personas that fool even the tech-savvy of us – especially when those personas come wrapped in a love story.

ALSO READ: Tech in 2025: The future is here, and it's getting weird

How did this happen?

Mr Liu met “Ms Jiao” online. She sent him videos, pictures, and heartfelt messages, all seemingly proving her existence.

What he didn’t know was every image, video, and message was crafted by AI and a team of con artists who knew exactly how to prey on his emotions.

The scheme escalated when “Jiao” began sending fake medical bills, pleading for financial help. Then came business investment requests (because what’s love without a little entrepreneurial spirit).

By the time Mr Liu realised the truth, his bank account was nearly $27,000 lighter, and his girlfriend was nothing more than pixels and a pipe dream.

The rise of AI catfishing

Catfishing has been around since the early days of the internet. Now thanks to AI, the game has changed.

These new-age scams are harder to detect because:

AI can generate realistic photos and videos in seconds.
Chatbots have gotten scary good at holding conversation – they're even capable of mimicking human emotions

Scammers exploit loneliness and the psychology of love, making people ignore red flags.

Mr Liu isn’t alone though. You might remember the woman who was previously conned out of $850,000 (about R15.8 million) by scammers using an AI-generated Brad Pitt (because apparently Brad Pitt can’t afford to pay his own medical bills now).

How to avoid falling for an AI Scam

If you’re into the whole online dating thing, stay skeptical and look out for these red flags:

1. They refuse video calls. If your “partner” always has an excuse to avoid FaceTiming, be suspicious.

2. Their photos look too perfect. AI-generated images often have weird details like mismatched earrings, four fingers instead of five, strange backgrounds, or unsettlingly flawless faces.

3. They ask for money almost instantly. A true partner won’t turn your romance into a GoFundMe campaign. At least wait for the first date before sending them money.

4. They seem too emotionally invested, too quickly. Scammers are great at fast-tracking relationships to build trust. Unless you’re the clingy type, most humans prefer to take things slow.

ALSO READ: Meet Aria: The AI robot that feels a little too real

So, it's official – AI has entered the dating landscape, and that’s something we should all keep in the back of our minds.

If someone you just started talking to online asks you for thousands of rands without a first date or even a FaceTime, close your wallet and open your eyes. It's probably a scam.