The Family Farm star Gareth Wyn Jones has been targeted in a £2,000 deepfake 'sextortion' plot. The 58-year-old TV personality said his work as an influencer has led to him becoming the target of an AI blackmailing scheme. The hill farmer claims he was sent an AI-generated deepfake video of himself having sex with a mysterious woman.
He was then allegedly told that he had to pay a staggering £2,000 to stop the footage appearing across the internet. Gareth, though, has refused the blackmailer’s demands and instead threatened them with legal action. The BBC star described the experience as “very scary” and wants to share the details to warn others of the scam.
The father of three encouraged others to remain strong as he feels he “might have caved in” had he “been more weak-willed”. Gareth, known as “the nation’s favourite farmer”, said the blackmailer told him: “See, you have to pay me £2,000 or I will log into your Facebook account and post about your sex video with me and pictures.”
He was also threatened with having his phone number hacked and his wife shown the video. But Gareth kept defiant and said: “It was very scary. I suppose you could call them trolls. They demanded payment for a video with this woman but I can tell you for a fact there are no images or videos of me with this woman. The whole thing was obviously AI generated.”
Gareth, who has two million social media followers and presented BBC documentary series The Family Farm, said the scam began when he was initially contacted by someone online who claimed to be selling goats for £5. The account’s profile picture changed to a woman some time after he had first been contacted, and then the blackmail attempt began. He added: “I’ve since been contacted by other people who have been targeted by similar scams, so it’s not just me.” He posted a warning on his Facebook page, saying: “These are dangerous people.”
