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Fake AI videos of Spain's crown princess used in 'TikTok scam'
The Guardian
|January 07, 2026
A foundation representing Princess Leonor, the 20-year-old heir to the Spanish throne, has said scammers are using Al-generated videos of the princess posted on fake profile pages to cheat social media users out of money.
In the posts on TikTok, “Leonor” promises users payments running to thousands of dollars in return for an upfront “fee” of a few hundred dollars. Once this fee has been paid, the fraudster typically keeps demanding more before disappearing.
An investigation by El País in 2024 found the telephone numbers used in the scam were from the Dominican Republic. Some of the videos had been viewed more than a million times, the newspaper reported.
This story is from the January 07, 2026 edition of The Guardian.
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