Staff Sgt Sherri Vlastuin isn’t a scammer, but her photos are used by scammers all over the world to bilk innocent people in low-level romance scams.

Most of the scammers are based in Nigeria and seek out elderly men in North America, Europe and other regions to induce them in crypto scams and other schemes.

I’m Real Honey. I’m Real

An associate of mine recently found that out the hard way, just how horrible a scam with her catfished pictures could be.

At first, he could not believe his luck when a beautiful woman from the military reached out to him on Facebook to communicate.

Over the weeks she tried to convince him she was real and eventually sent him this video, which he believed to be real.

DeepFakes Don’t Have To Be That Convincing To Work

Deepfakes like this are pretty poor quality and use widely available apps like XpressionCamera.

You probably spotted this fake instantly, but you have to remember scams are all about the context and many victims of romance scams are looking for any shred of evidence, not matter how small, that the person is real.

Imagine how much more convincing these deepfakes will become with improved AI?