A South Florida attorney is warning the public after discovering that scammers are impersonating him in what he describes as an AI scam. Using fake accounts set up in his name, the scammers have been reaching out to people and trying to get them to hand over money, all while pretending to be the lawyer himself.
According to the attorney, he became aware of the problem after people started calling his office. The callers had been contacted by accounts posing as him, and it was those calls that alerted the lawyer to the fact that his identity was being used without his knowledge to target potential victims.
The scammers, he says, are offering fast relief, promising to take care of people's problems right away in exchange for payment. The message to victims is essentially to pay now and have the matter handled, a tactic designed to pressure people into sending money quickly before they stop to question what is happening.
A key warning sign, according to the attorney, is the way the payments are requested. The scammers ask for money through apps such as Venmo, Zelle and Cash App. He urges people to be careful whenever they are asked to send money that way, describing it as one of the obvious signs of fraud in these schemes.
To fight back against the fake accounts, the lawyer says he has had to hire an online anti-piracy company to take down thousands of them. The sheer number of accounts involved points to the scale of the operation being run in his name, with new profiles appearing to replace those that are removed.
The situation has forced the attorney to make drastic changes in his own life, including changing his personal phone number. Despite all of this, he says he has no idea who is behind the AI scam, and he is urging people to stay alert and to treat any sudden offer of fast relief in exchange for payment with suspicion.