WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. — A West Palm Beach woman is sharing her story as a warning after she narrowly escaped what she believes may have been an attempted carjacking scheme involving artificial intelligence-generated video footage.
Melanie Valentine told WPTV she was making keys at the Home Depot on Palm Beach Lakes Boulevard in West Palm Beach around 10 p.m. on Oct. 17, when a man in his 20s approached her with what appeared to be video evidence of someone stealing her husband's truck from the parking lot.
"He said, you have to follow me. You have to follow me. We can catch him. We can catch him," Valentine said.
The video looked incredibly realistic, but Valentine said she trusted her instincts and refused to follow the stranger outside. Instead, she called police, while her neighbor went to check on the vehicle.
"In that moment, it looked like a real video. I thought it was a real video," Valentine said. "But I had that just a gut feeling that something was off, and, of course, I wasn't going to follow the guy out front."
Her neighbor discovered the truck was exactly where they had left it. He also spotted another person crouched behind the vehicle, prompting him to alert Home Depot security.
"Yeah, it was wild. It was pretty shocking," said Valentine.
West Palm Beach police confirmed Valentine filed a report and are investigating the incident as suspicious activity.
Valentine said the responding officer told her she hadn't encountered this type of scheme before, but believed it represented a new use of AI technology for carjacking attempts.
"Thankfully, I had the wherewithal. I didn't follow them outside, you know, because who knows what would have happened?" said Valentine.
Dr. Karni Chagal-Feferkorn, an AI attorney and professor at the University of South Florida, said she's seeing more cases involving AI-generated content used in criminal schemes.
"The thing is — AI tools are getting better," Chagal-Feferkorn said.
She warned that children are particularly vulnerable to these tactics.
"Think if someone would show this video to a kid -- 'Hey, it's your mom, come, she's calling you, it's her voice, she knows your name,'" Chagal-Feferkorn said. "So this is very scary to me as a parent, I think to all of us it should be scary."
According to cybersecurity firm DeepStrike, crimes involving AI are surging. The company projects financial fraud enabled by generative AI in the United States will reach $40 billion by 2027, up from $12.3 billion in 2023.
The cybersecurity company's study also found deepfake content is rising exponentially, from 500,000 fake videos and photos in 2024 to a projected 8 million by the end of this year.
Chagal-Feferkorn advised people to remain vigilant and verify suspicious situations.
"The first thing is awareness, it's sad, but we need to not trust things like we used to before," she said. "The second, be more alert, be more suspicious, and if something feels off, try to verify."
Valentine decided to share her story to warn others about this emerging threat.
"I really wanted to bring awareness of what is happening, because even the police officer said that she hadn't seen this before. It was really scary, because, you know, you start to think about all of the things that could have possibly happened," Valentine said. "Maybe they would have ambushed me when I was getting out of the truck, if I had been by myself, or if I had walked out to the front with them, would they maybe have had a weapon or try to throw me in the truck — I have no idea."
This story was reported on-air by a journalist and has been converted to this platform with the assistance of AI. Our editorial team verifies all reporting on all platforms for fairness and accuracy.
