Argentina: actor Jorge Martínez, 79, loses savings to two online scams days apart, one an investment platform promoted with AI-made fake videos of Lionel Messi and Javier Milei
The 79-year-old telenovela actor Jorge Martínez said in late September 2026 that he lost his savings to two online scams a few days apart. One was a supposed investment platform that, by his relayed and televised accounts, used fake videos of Lionel Messi (and, in several reports, Javier Milei) made with artificial intelligence. In a television interview he said the platform had Messi as its figurehead and that he later saw it was an artificial intelligence. The other began with callers posing as Temu, who promised him a 500,000-peso deposit as a favoured customer and asked for his bank details. His published tellings differ on which scam took what. In the account relayed by journalist Nahuel Saa (La Criti) on 28 September, the platform scam left his four bank accounts at zero and the Temu call took 1,400 dollars. In the television interviews reported on 29 September, the Temu call was followed by two loans requested in his name and the withdrawal of his savings, and the platform took an initial 149,600-peso deposit, showed a fictitious balance of 19,000 dollars and then took the last 1,400 dollars he had.
AI involvement reported · Causal attribution alleged · 7 sources, 2 underlying accounts · Added 29/09/2026