Elderly Woman Defrauded of Nearly $1M in Deepfake Crypto Scam

• •Judy Skene lost nearly $1 million in a deepfake cryptocurrency scam.
• •Scammers used an AI-generated video of Prime Minister Mark Carney to deceive her.
• •The Canadian Anti-Fraud Centre warns that deepfake scams are on the rise.

Judy Skene, an 86-year-old retired pharmacist from Sault Ste. Marie, lost almost a million dollars in a cryptocurrency scam that began in July 2025. Scammers used an AI-generated deepfake video of Prime Minister Mark Carney to lure her into investing $350 initially. Over several months, they convinced her to cash in her Registered Retirement Income Fund for $650,000, take a $300,000 mortgage on her condo, and make a $35,000 cash advance on her credit card. Skene believed she would earn $40,000 monthly in dividends. Despite warnings from her bank, she remained convinced of the scheme's legitimacy. She has lost her entitlement to Old Age Security and is now left with only $1,150 monthly from the Canada Pension Plan against $2,300 in expenses. The Canadian Anti-Fraud Centre reports that such scams are increasingly common, with over $1.2 billion lost to investment fraud since 2022.