Incredibly sad stuff.

As problematic as AI has gotten in the music industry over the past year from a pure artistic and ethics standpoint, highlighted primarily by a completely AI-generated “artist,” Breaking Rust, capturing the #1 spot on a Billboard country chart this past October, the concerns over artificial intelligence reach far beyond the music itself.

Of course, this is hardly a dismissal of the very real issue of AI “artists” not only stealing both streams and intellectual property from actual, human artists. With that being said, there’s yet another increasingly dangerous problem popping up lately, thanks to AI. And that, of course, is scams using artists’ likenesses.

It’s no stretch to say that scams such as these have existed as long as the internet has existed. It seems like weekly, you’ll see some story pop up about a fan giving thousands of dollars to fake accounts posing as their favorite artists. Oftentimes, however, these scams seem fairly obvious to anyone with any internet savvy and ultimately catch elderly and disabled people who may not have the capacity to distinguish the differences between these seemingly endless fake accounts that exist everywhere from Instagram, Facebook, X (formerly Twitter) and especially on TikTok.

Notably, a Central Texas resident by the name of Anthony McAlfney, who has an intellectual and developmental disability, had money stolen from him by scammers posing as both Cody Johnson and Chris Young. And, you guessed it, these scammers were using clearly AI-generated images of Johnson to aid their scheme.

Recently we have another case similar to McAflney’s; however, this one is much more insane.

On a recent episode of Derek “Big D” Haskins and Sean “Bubba” Powell’s always-entertaining radio show, Big D and Bubba, a woman appeared to tell the hosts that she’s getting married soon… to Riley Green.

No, that wasn’t a typo. This unnamed woman is the latest in a growing number of people who have fell for the seemingly endless amount of bots and scammers on social media, which are only getting worse and more dangerous thanks to AI.

Talking to the duo, she’d explain that she met “Riley” on Facebook and quickly hit it off with whoever is running the fake account, texting the person “20-30 times” a day.

“We have a private chat that we chat on… every day, 20-30 times a day.”

Diving further into the insanity, when Big D and Bubba asked about the situation some more, she’d then go onto say that she had fallen in love with “Riley” and she’s planning on getting married to him soon, noting that she’s leaving the wedding up to him.

Even more mind-numbingly, she’d then go onto say that she’s talked to “Green” on the phone after texting, telling the radio hosts that she moved onto phone calls to avoid being scammed… The irony here is actually palpable.

“Oh, I’ve talked to him… I’m not gonna text him no more. I know there’s a lot of people out that [are] scammers and stuff, and I don’t like that. I’m honest. I’m truthful, and they don’t need to be doing me like that. They’re messing with the wrong person.”

At this point in the story, I’m thinking this is a great, drawn-out bit. I mean, seriously, the woman directly talks about hating scammers. The sad thing is, it’s not.

The pair would then go on to play a recording of the “Worst Way” singer’s actual voice when he recorded a quick radio liner for their show. When asked if that’s the same voice she heard on the phone, she’d double down once again and say she’s actually talking to the ACM Male Artist of the Year nominee.

Looking out for the woman, the duo would ask if the Green impersonator ever asked for money, which she denied. Clearly defeated, dumbfounded and shocked, the two would simply laugh it off and tell her to have fun and get married to “Riley.”

Even more delusional, she’d push back on Big D and Bubba laughing at the absurdity of the situation

“You go ahead and laugh. And when it happens, I’m gonna call y’all back. And I’m gonna tell you, ‘Big D and Bubba, I told you so.”

I wish I could tell you this was just a drawn-out bit from the hilarious duo, but it became pretty clear throughout the interaction that it was genuine. You can clearly tell as the conversation went on just how dumbfounded they were. I genuinely don’t even know where to begin with this one, but I’ll finish with a word of advice: artists are not going to randomly start messaging you on Facebook. If it sounds too good to be true, it definitely is.

Watch the full interaction here: