Gareth Wyn Jones, described as “the nation’s favourite farmer”, presented The Family Farm, a BBC series which saw families take part in an agricultural challenge in north Wales
The Family Farm star Gareth Wyn Jones has been targeted in a £2,000 deepfake “sextortion” plot.
The 58-year-old TV personality said his work as an influencer has lead to him becoming the target of the AI blackmailing plot. The hill farmer claimed he was sent an AI-generated deepfake video of himself having sex with a mysterious woman.
He was then allegedly told that he had to pay a staggering £2,000 to stop the footage appearing across the internet. Gareth, though, has refused the blackmailer’s demands and instead threatened them with legal action.
The BBC star described the experience as “very scary” and wants to share the details to warn others of the scam. The father of three encouraged others to remain strong as he feels he “might have caved in” had he “been more weak-willed”.
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Gareth, known as “the nation’s favourite farmer”, said the blackmailer told him: “See, you have to pay me £2,000 or I will log into your Facebook account and post about your sex video with me and pictures.
“I will also hack your phone number and call your wife and show her, and I will also post it on social media. So to avoid this, just pay me £2,000 and be free.”
But the TV personality, who lives in north Wales with his wife and kids, kept defiant and threatened the trolls with legal action. He said: “It was very scary. I suppose you could call them trolls.
“They demanded payment for a video with this woman but I can tell you for a fact there are no images or videos of me with this woman. The whole thing was obviously AI generated.”
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Gareth, who has two million social media followers and presented BBC documentary series The Family Farm, said the scam began when he was initially contacted by someone online who claimed to be selling goats for £5.
The account’s profile picture changed to a woman some time after he had first been contacted by them, and then the blackmail attempt began, it is reported.
Source: Mirror
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