Recruitment listings for AI face “models” have surged in the past year, with many applicants seeking financial scams via video chat. The role involves interacting with a mark and messaging them repeatedly to build up a rapport that leads to financial requests. The models, who appear as other people due to deepfake technology, often have limited control over their working conditions. These recruitment channels have been found on secure messaging app Telegram, where scam content is explicit. Hotspots for recruiting include countries like Turkey, Russia, Ukraine, Belarus, Cambodia, and Asia and Southeast Asia. The scams are multi-fold: targeting vulnerable workers into exploitative roles that help criminal enterprises extract billions from unsuspecting victims. A report from the Consumer Federation of America estimated that Americans lose $119 billion annually to scams.