100,000 euros gone

Carinthian fell for a fake celebrity video

A 62-year-old man from the district of St. Veit an der Glan fell for a fake video of a prominent Austrian on the internet and lost more than 100,000 euros to internet fraudsters as a result.

He had hoped for a lucrative investment and transferred the money in several tranches, the police announced in a press release on Thursday.

He had previously been contacted via the internet by an unknown man who showed him a video featuring a well-known presenter. However, this video had been edited in such a way that the celebrity was advertising a form of investment.

The 62-year-old did not notice the fake, believed the advertisement and transferred money several times to German, Latvian, Lithuanian and Polish accounts. It was only when he was asked to make a further payment of several tens of thousands of euros as an alleged tax payment that he became suspicious and filed a complaint.