Earlier this year, an Australian NAB customer very nearly transferred $100,000 of her own savings to a scammer she believed, sincerely, was the actor Kevin Costner. She’d been speaking to him on video calls. He looked like him, sounded like him, and had a story about wanting to set up an office in Australia and needing help purchasing commercial property. A NAB banker recognised the warning signs, an AI-driven deepfake video call combined with emotional pressure and a request for a large sum of money, and stopped the transfer before it went through.
NAB has since warned publicly that scammers are increasingly using AI-generated video and voice to impersonate not just Hollywood celebrities like Kevin Costner, Kylie Jenner, and Elon Musk, but Australian public figures too, including well-known media personalities and business identities.
Why This Is Different From Older Scams
Phishing emails and dodgy texts are things a lot of us have learned to spot. Deepfakes are a different problem entirely, because they attack the thing we’ve always trusted most: actually seeing and hearing someone. A video call used to be strong evidence you were talking to a real person. That’s no longer a safe assumption.
How These Scams Typically Work
- Contact often starts on social media, where a fake profile poses as a celebrity, business contact, or even a relative
- The conversation moves to a video or voice call, using AI to fake the appearance and voice of a real person in real time
- A relationship or story is built over days or weeks, so the request doesn’t feel sudden
- Eventually there’s a request for money, often framed as an investment, a loan you’ll be repaid for with interest, or help with an urgent problem
How to Protect Yourself
- Treat “seeing is believing” as outdated advice. A realistic video call is no longer proof of identity on its own.
- Verify through a second, independent channel. If “someone you know” (or a celebrity, or a bank, or a government department) asks you for money on a call, contact them a different way, using a phone number or email you already had, not one they just gave you, before doing anything.
- Be wary of urgency and secrecy. Scammers push you to act fast and often ask you to keep the conversation quiet from family or your bank. Legitimate requests rarely require either.
- No real celebrity or business figure needs your personal savings to fund a venture, however good the story sounds.
- Talk to your bank before transferring anything unusual. As this case shows, bank staff are trained to spot these patterns, and a quick conversation can save you a lot of money.
If You Think You’ve Been Targeted
Report it to Scamwatch, and if money has already left your account, contact your bank immediately, the faster a bank is notified, the better the chance of stopping or reversing a transfer.
Worried About Something You’ve Seen or Been Sent?
If you’ve received a suspicious call, message, or video that doesn’t feel right, we’re happy to take a look and talk it through with you. Get in touch through the contact form on our homepage, no judgement, just a second opinion.