A new kind of online scam is fooling people using fake videos of Dubai’s Crown Prince, Sheikh Hamdan, also known as Fazza. Scammers use AI deepfake technology to create realistic videos of the prince, then use them to trick people into fake romantic relationships.
One victim, called Maria, met a man online who looked and talked like Prince Hamdan on video calls. He sent her loving messages day and night. She believed he truly cared for her. But the man in the video was fake — an AI creation with the prince’s face, though the voice was not really his.
Maria lost her whole year’s savings, paying money for a fake marriage certificate and a “royal membership card.” When the scammer asked for more money, and she checked his Facebook account, she found it was based in Nigeria. She then ended contact with him.
This kind of scam takes advantage of the prince’s huge following of more than 17 million people on Instagram, sometimes even using his real poems to fool victims. Many fake Facebook groups pretend to be run by him and invite people to chat privately.
Experts say scams like this cause huge losses worldwide, with people losing about $442 billion last year to different kinds of fraud, including romance scams. As AI video technology becomes better, telling real from fake online will become even harder. Experts warn people to be careful when forming online relationships with strangers, especially those claiming to be famous or rich.
