Duped by scammers, a fifty-year-old resident of South Korea believed she was having a romance with the star of the Netflix series for several months. She was robbed of 300,000 euros.

Appearances can be deceptive, and can lead to some very sad disappointments. A South Korean woman who fell in love with an AI pretending to be Lee Jung-Jae, the star actor of the Netflix series Squid Game , was scammed out of more than 300,000 euros, reports the Korea Times .

According to police, a group of fraudsters used artificial intelligence-generated photos of the actor and a fake driver's license to deceive the woman. Investigators are currently investigating possible links between the suspects and a criminal organization based in Cambodia.

The deception began several months ago when the fifty-year-old received a message from the actor, apparently sent from his official account. He simply wanted to "communicate with his fans" during the filming of Squid Game 3. He initially offered her a VIP pass for a whopping €6,700. "He told me he would reimburse me as soon as he returned to Korea. I believed him," she explained to the authorities.

The woman then broke her piggy bank to meet her idol or free him from a US airport where he was supposedly stuck. Their conversations lasted a total of six months.

"Firm measures"

The actor's agency, Artist Company, doesn't intend to stop there. "A recent crime occurred in which individuals impersonated our artist in order to demand money and gain financial advantage," it said on Instagram Wednesday. "We want to clarify that neither our company nor any of our artists solicit money, wire transfers, or financial support under any circumstances."