A South Korean resident says she met «Musk» on Instagram, where he allegedly selectively communicates with fans.
«On July 17 last year, Musk added me as a friend on Instagram. Although I became a big fan of his after reading his biography, at first I doubted whether it was real,» the woman told journalists of the Korean television company KBS (via Business Insider).
Later, the fake Elon started telling her about his work at Tesla and even sent her pictures of his workplace and an ID card, so she no longer doubted that she was lucky to be chosen.
«Musk talked about his children and taking a helicopter to work at Tesla or Space X,» she told KBS.
The fraudster also told her the details of his «meeting with South Korean President Yun Suk-yeol in April 2023. There, he allegedly agreed to build Tesla factories in Seoul and Jeju.
It is interesting that they managed to talk on video — most likely, the fraudster used a diplomatic facsimile.
«Musk even said during the video call: «I love you, do you know that?», — the woman adds.
In the end, the fake Musk asked to transfer 70 million Korean won, or $50,000, to his bank account (which allegedly belonged to one of his Korean employees) — and promised to make her rich by investing this money «where it should be».
In fact, «love scams» — are quite common. In the United States alone, fake lovers lured $1.3 billion from their victims in 2022. As for Musk’s clones, this is not the first time they have become known to the public — a Chinese billionaire double named Yilong Ma became popular in TikTok and even attracted the attention of the real Elon.
«I would like to meet this guy (if he is real). Now, this is very hard to detect, given the diphthaics», — wrote Musk in a May 2022 post on X.