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NOPE
Medium reported severity

Chicago-area man reports $10,000 loss after AI voice messages impersonating Elon Musk

A Chicago-area man told ABC7 that he sent $10,000 in cryptocurrency to someone posing as Elon Musk. The outlet reports that the scammer used AI-assembled voice messages using Musk's voice, alongside social media messages, apparent investment returns and a promised vehicle. The man said he could not retrieve the money after several months and was struggling to pay ordinary bills. The beginning of the contact and the technical creation of the messages remain unknown.

AI system
Unidentified voice-cloning tool
Unknown
Occurred
Event date unknown
Reported
8 July 2025
Event location
United States
What the AI did
Communicated with the person
Reported harm
Financial Loss
Whose AI use
Someone else’s AI use
Setting
Finance · Everyday life
Evidence
AI involvement reported · Causal attribution alleged · 1 source
3 claims: 3 reported. 2 open questions
People reported harmed
At least 1 person

AI system as recorded: Reported AI-generated voice impersonation

What Happened

A Chicago-area man told ABC7 that he sent $10,000 in cryptocurrency to someone posing as Elon Musk. The outlet reports that the scammer used AI-assembled voice messages using Musk's voice, alongside social media messages, apparent investment returns and a promised vehicle. The man said he could not retrieve the money after several months and was struggling to pay ordinary bills. The beginning of the contact and the technical creation of the messages remain unknown.

Reported harm

The interviewee reported losing $10,000 in cryptocurrency and difficulty paying rent, bills and car expenses.

What remains unknown

  • The first event date, scammer identity and audio-generation tool are unknown.
  • Whether any funds were subsequently recovered is unknown.

What the evidence supports

AI involvement: reported. ABC7 specifically reports fake voice memos using Musk's voice assembled with artificial intelligence in this man's contact with the scammer. This is a journalistic attribution, without inspected forensic analysis.

3 claims: 3 reported. What the statuses mean

Reported ABC7 reports that the scammer sent the man fake audio messages using Elon Musk's voice, assembled with artificial intelligence.

Causal attribution. One ABC7 interview and the outlet's report about the audio. The loss and consequences are the interviewee's account, without proof that AI alone caused the transfer.

Reported The man said he sent a total of $10,000 in cryptocurrency and eventually realised it was a scam when he could not recover the money.

Causal attribution. One ABC7 interview and the outlet's report about the audio. The loss and consequences are the interviewee's account, without proof that AI alone caused the transfer.

Reported He said the loss left him struggling to pay bills, rent and car expenses.

Causal attribution. One ABC7 interview and the outlet's report about the audio. The loss and consequences are the interviewee's account, without proof that AI alone caused the transfer.

Sources

1 source inspected. Sources that repeat one account do not corroborate each other.

How the sources were read, and where the events happened

Event countries: United States. Affected-person countries: United States. Court countries: Unknown.

ABC7 identifies the interviewee as a Chicago-area resident and places the experience in that setting.

Reviewed for publication 2026-09-30: A direct interview links a concrete financial loss to reported AI voice impersonation. The man's identity is minimized. The event date remains unknown and July 2025 is only the report date.

People reported harmed in this case

At least 1 person

0 AI participants · 1 other person harmed

One interviewed man describes his own loss. His relatives and the impersonated actor are not counted.

Counted once within this case. The same person may appear in other cases. This count does not establish AI causation.

Cite this case

Compiled per our published methodology: verification statuses, sourcing standards, and corrections process.

APA

NOPE. (2026). Chicago-area man reports $10,000 loss after AI voice messages impersonating Elon Musk. AI incidents. https://nope.net/incidents/2025-chicago-reported-musk-voice-impersonation-crypto-loss

BibTeX

@misc{2025_chicago_reported_musk_voice_impersonation_crypto_loss,
  title = {Chicago-area man reports \$10,000 loss after AI voice messages impersonating Elon Musk},
  author = {NOPE},
  year = {2026},
  howpublished = {AI incidents},
  url = {https://nope.net/incidents/2025-chicago-reported-musk-voice-impersonation-crypto-loss}
}

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