GCD AI RADAR
incidents/AIR-2023-0034

Ottawa retirees lose CA$177,000 to Elon Musk deepfake investment scam

AI-enabled attack4 Confirmed real-world lossDeepfake fraudAI phishing / social engineering

Fraudsters deployed an AI-generated video of Elon Musk to bait an Ontario couple into a fraudulent cryptocurrency scheme. The attackers subsequently obtained remote computer access and drained CA$177,023 through unauthorized transfers.

Details

type
AI-enabled attack
Attackers used AI as a meaningful part of a cyberattack against someone else.
categories
  • Deepfake fraudprimary
    Synthetic voice, video or images used to impersonate people for fraud, extortion or access.
  • AI phishing / social engineering
    Phishing, lures and social engineering produced or personalised at scale with AI.
owasp llm top 10
no entry for these categories
mitre atlas
Both rows are derived from the type and categories (OWASP 2025 edition, ATLAS release 2026.09), not classified per record. How
severity
4 · Confirmed real-world loss
Financial loss, PHI/PII breach, safety impact or regulatory action.
targets
Individuals
incident date
1 Oct 2023
first reported
1 Oct 2023
origin
AI Incident Database
Derived from the AI Incident Database (CC BY-SA 4.0).
classifier confidence
0.95 · published at or above 0.80; see the methodology
tags
deepfake-fraud · social-engineering · cryptocurrency · remote-access · elon-musk
record
created 2026-10-18 06:33Z · updated 2026-10-18 06:59Z · json

Sources · 1

  1. 2023-10-01
    Ottawa Couple Reportedly Loses CA$177,023 After Purported Deepfake Elon Musk Investment Scam
    AI Incident Database · incidentdatabase.ai/cite/1276

Titles and links belong to their publishers. The summary above is written by GCD AI RADAR in its own words; data is CC BY-SA 4.0.

Related incidents