OnlyFans creators targeted by AI deepfake identity theft | DigitalShield

Scammers lure victims with promises of private chats, but once they receive the payment, they disappear and delete their accounts.

Cybercriminals are taking advantage of the popularity of the OnlyFans platform to scam users who visit it eager for sexually-oriented content . To do this, they are using deepfakes generated with artificial intelligence.

The cybercriminals rely on this technology to create fake identities and impersonate real creators. They build them by taking real images of the models and adding synthetic voices to give more credibility to these personalities.

To lure their victims, the scammers rely on several tools . They use TikTok to discover profiles, Snapchat to converse directly, and CashApp for payments.

Choosing the latter as a payment method makes a lot of sense, as it is a kind of Bizum for transactions between friends, where transfers are processed instantly and disappear.

"It is a form of online identity theft, where an attacker impersonates another person and engages in romantic or sexual interactions with hidden motives," states the report published by MalwareBytes, which warns of these practices.

"This type of fraud has two victims: the fans who lose money due to the scams and the creators. The latter lose the income they could have obtained from their fans and also risk facing backlash from disgruntled followers who feel scammed," the report highlights.

MalwareBytes also points out that the stolen material is often hosted on foreign servers, making it difficult to control. "Even if laws were universally enforced, it probably wouldn't help. In three experiments conducted this year, researchers from the University of Bristol found that most participants continued to use deepfake content even after being warned of its falsity," they conclude.

This scam would be an evolution of the so-called 'romantic scams.' MalwareBytes itself had previously warned Amazon and Apple identity theft scams that used the same redirection and payment technique, where victims were diverted from a trusted platform to a direct channel before the payment request.

This new variant targeting the OnlyFans audience shares with the one and others of the same type the establishment of a trust relationship, the generation of urgency, and the request for payment through an irreversible channel.

Cybercriminals are taking advantage of the popularity of the OnlyFans platform to scam users who visit it eager for sexually-oriented content . To do this, they are using deepfakes generated with artificial intelligence.

The cybercriminals rely on this technology to create fake identities and impersonate real creators. They build them by taking real images of the models and adding synthetic voices to give more credibility to these personalities.

To lure their victims, the scammers rely on several tools . They use TikTok to discover profiles, Snapchat to converse directly, and CashApp for payments.

Choosing the latter as a payment method makes a lot of sense, as it is a kind of Bizum for transactions between friends, where transfers are processed instantly and disappear.

"It is a form of online identity theft, where an attacker impersonates another person and engages in romantic or sexual interactions with hidden motives," states the report published by MalwareBytes, which warns of these practices.

"This type of fraud has two victims: the fans who lose money due to the scams and the creators. The latter lose the income they could have obtained from their fans and also risk facing backlash from disgruntled followers who feel scammed," the report highlights.

MalwareBytes also points out that the stolen material is often hosted on foreign servers, making it difficult to control. "Even if laws were universally enforced, it probably wouldn't help. In three experiments conducted this year, researchers from the University of Bristol found that most participants continued to use deepfake content even after being warned of its falsity," they conclude.

This scam would be an evolution of the so-called 'romantic scams.' MalwareBytes itself had previously warned Amazon and Apple identity theft scams that used the same redirection and payment technique, where victims were diverted from a trusted platform to a direct channel before the payment request.

This new variant targeting the OnlyFans audience shares with the one and others of the same type the establishment of a trust relationship, the generation of urgency, and the request for payment through an irreversible channel.

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