Ex-TV meteorologist fights deepfakes after her image was doctored in scams
For nearly a decade, Bree Smith was a familiar face in Nashville. But, in January, the mom and former TV meteorologist stopped appearing on the local CBS-affiliated station — a decision she made after months of fighting against deepfakes, which are simulated online images or videos that can seem realistic.
In Smith's case, an image of her was doctored to create explicit pictures and videos, with her face edited onto different, partly nude bodies, and then used to try to extort money from others. "Sextortion" scams like this one have targeted tens of thousands of Americans in the past year alone, according to the FBI.
"I cry myself to sleep most nights, mostly because I don't want my kids to see me," said Smith, who is 43. She recalled first learning about the images in an email, which included a screen grab of an exchange between the sender and an "impersonator" posing as the doctored version of her on the internet.
The deepfakes quickly multiplied, accompanying offers for private dinners and intimate acts in exchange for hundreds of dollars, and targeting anyone who might recognize Smith. She began to keep track of new accounts using the deepfake in a Google spreadsheet — and added 24 over the course of just one week, among hundreds that she says have emerged online. A fabricated video also surfaced where a deepfake claims to be Smith.
"You're basically taking someone's identity," she said. "You're weaponizing them."
Smith has become a vocal advocate for regulations that could empower sextortion victims to fight back against their offenders. And last week, a bill Smith backed passed in the Tennessee Senate. The bill, called the "Preventing Deepfake Images Act," was sent to Tennessee Gov. Bill Lee, who is expected to sign it into law. It provides a path for people targeted by sextortion scams to sue if images of them are shared without their consent.
"These imposters are trying to take my story, and my story is mine," Smith said. "This is my life. I'm 43 years old and I have worked hard and I have loved well, and I'm not going to just roll over and take this."
She said "defining it as illegal is a critical first step," but that work still needs to be done, such as figuring out how to stop it and hold people accountable.
As the bill worked its way through the Tennessee legislature, Smith appeared last month before the Tennessee House Criminal Justice Subcommittee to share her experience with deepfakes and the ways in which the scam has impacted her and her family. In her testimony to lawmakers, she said deepfake accounts pretending to be her have shown up on Facebook and Instagram, in quantities too large for her to find and report as an individual person, CBS News affiliate WSMV reported.
"I try my best to catch the imposters and block them, but like I said, there have been hundreds of them. It's like whack a mole, they just appear everywhere," Smith told lawmakers. "I'm just supposed to look at them and say, 'nothing we can do, bud?'"
There were over 34,000 victims of sextortion in 2023, according to the FBI's Internet Crime Complaint Center. That number climbed to more than 54,000 victims last year. The FBI said financial sextortion, which differs from typical sextortion as it involves an offender threatening to release explicit material unless a payment is met, has been on the rise in the U.S. and targeting minors.
Hayley Elizondo, who tracks sextortion crimes at the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children, said financial gain is the perpetrators' primary goal.
"These offenders, their whole game is to make money," she said. "I'm not surprised that we are seeing adults also become the target of financial sextortion. Frankly, they're going to reach out to those who can pay them."
Officials say the most important thing for people to do if they think they are a victim of deepfakes is to report them.
"If you come across deepfake content that involves you or someone you know, report it to the platform hosting the content," says the National Cybersecurity Alliance, a nonprofit organization. "This can help in having it removed or investigated, limiting its potential reach."
The organization also advises reporting it to federal law enforcement, which can be done through the Internet Crime Complaint Center.
Nicole Valdes is a correspondent based in Nashville. Valdes was most recently a weather correspondent with FOX Weather. Since joining FOX Weather in 2021, Valdes covered breaking and developing weather-related news for the streaming service. Valdes reported from nearly 40 states, leading network coverage of Hurricane Ian's impact on Florida, as well as countless tornadoes, flood, and wildfires. As a proud bilingual journalist, Valdes put her skills forward to produce and report an in-depth piece on Hurricane Maria's impact to Puerto Rico. Prior to this role, Valdes worked as a reporter and fill-in anchor in Phoenix, Arizona, where she led the station's coverage of the 2020 Presidential election. She was also a multimedia journalist for the CBS-affiliate in Fort Myers, Florida. Valdes graduated from the University of Florida in Gainesville.
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