By Victoria Johns
A heartbroken Friends fan claims he was cruelly scammed out of 拢200 by a fraudster pretending to be Jennifer Aniston . Paul Davies from Southampton, says he thought he was chatting to the Rachel Green legend on social media before ‘Jennifer’ asked to him to hand over the cash so she could pay for her “Apple subscriptions”. Paul says he was targeted by a flurry of AI scammers pretending to be Hollywood stars in a worrying new wave of deepfake fraud. The Brit, 43, revealed how he was swamped by swathes of very convincing clips – he thought were from celebrities – including Mark Zuckerberg and Elon Musk. However, when ‘Jen’ sent him her driving licence as proof of her identity, he says he fell for it, not least because she told him she ‘loved him’. Speaking to The Sun , he said: 鈥淚鈥檝e had fake videos from Jennifer Aniston saying she loves me and asking for 拢200. I believed it 鈥 and I paid.鈥 The savage scam saw him send 拢200 worth of non-refundable Apple gift cards to the alleged American sweetheart as Paul admitted: 鈥淚 got bitten. 鈥淥nce bitten, twice shy.鈥 During their exchange on social media, ‘Jennifer’ sent a slew of sweet messages to Paul while also warning him not to contact Facebook because “you don’t want problems”. The cruel con is sadly part of a worrying wave of deepfake, AI generated videos, which often forge someone’s face, voice or entire likeness. Paul claims he’s been hounded by droves of deepfake videos, often promising he’s won a huge prize, endorsed by a fake celebrity. One video even showed a fake Zuckerberg declaring: 鈥淭his is not a scam – believe me鈥 while flashing a phoney ID. 鈥淭hey make it look so real,鈥 Paul said. “It鈥檚 been going on for five months. I thought someone would get in trouble for this, but they seem to be having a laugh 鈥 and getting away with it.鈥 Paul, who admits his mental health has been greatly affected by the scam, says he’s sharing his story to protect others. It comes after another unsuspecting Facebook user fell foul of a scammer pretending to be Brad Pitt. They conned a French woman out of nearly 拢700,000 by pretending to be the Fight Club star, despite actually living in Nigeria and never stepping foot in front of a camera. Interior designer Anne, 53, was conned into funding a fake cancer treatment for the so-called star after receiving AI-generated selfies and love messages. The sham romance lasted over a year, costing Anne her fortune, her marriage, and her mental health. Eventually a crack team discovered the scammer’s identity, his Nigerian home, along with, sadly, 34 other victims. * For more information and advice about deepfakes, please contact Police UK. Follow Mirror Celebs on TikTok , Snapchat , Instagram , Twitter , Facebook , YouTube and Thread