By Eve Beattie Victoria Johns
A devastated Friends superfan claims he was brutally scammed out of 拢200 by a fraudster posing as Jennifer Aniston. Paul Davies from Southampton believed he was chatting to the Rachel Green star on social media, before ‘ Jennifer ‘ asked him to hand over the cash so she could pay for her “Apple subscriptions” reports the Mirror. Paul claims he was bombarded with scarily realistic AI-generated videos and messages from supposed Hollywood stars, including fake clips of Mark Zuckerberg and Elon Musk. The 43-year-old said ‘ Jen ‘ sent him her driving license as proof of her identity and 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 cruel 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 conversation on social media, ‘ Jennifer ‘ sent various sweet messages to Paul while also warning him not to contact Facebook because “you don’t want problems”. The twisted con is part of a worrying wave of deepfake, AI generated videos, which often forge someone’s face, voice or entire likeness. Paul says he’s been hounded by droves of deepfake videos, often claiming 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 affected by the scam , said he’s sharing his story to protect others. It comes as another unsuspecting Facebook user was duped by a scammer pretending to be Brad Pitt. The con artist swindled 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 tricked into funding a bogus cancer treatment for the so-called superstar after being sent AI-generated selfies and love messages. The sham romance dragged on for over a year, costing Anne her life savings, her marriage, and her mental health. Eventually a crack team discovered the scammer’s identity, his Nigerian home, along with, sadly, 34 other victims.