Skip to main content
NOPE
Low reported severity Media Coverage

Brazilian builder travelled over 2,000 km to Belo Horizonte to meet a social-media woman who did not exist; the account's operator says the persona is AI-made

In October 2026 a 49-year-old builder travelled more than 2,000 km by bus from Imperatriz, in Maranhão, to Belo Horizonte to meet a woman he knew from a social-media account with about 300,000 followers. In the account's videos a woman with a realistic voice and appearance said she was looking for a man to live with her on a farm. He told G1 he began interacting with the profile after its videos appeared in his feeds, that it kept private conversations with him and offered to pay his fare, and that he travelled without an address. In Belo Horizonte he showed her photos to people and found that nobody knew her; he said he felt deceived. The city's social assistance service gave him food, a bath and a ticket home. A day later the account's administrator posted a video in which the persona says it is made of artificial intelligence, that it never conversed with anyone on the profile and that the aim was engagement for sales; the creator told the press he set up the account in 2025 to attract buyers. Who wrote the private messages the man describes is not established. Minas Gerais civil police said they had no report of the case and could not say a crime had occurred.

AI system
Unidentified video tool
Occurred
9 Oct 2026 to 13 Oct 2026
Reported
13 October 2026
Event location
Brazil
What the AI did
Communicated with the person
Reported harm
Psychological DistressOther Material Harm
Whose AI use
Someone else’s AI use
Setting
Relationships · Everyday life
Evidence
AI involvement supported · Causal attribution alleged · 3 sources, 2 underlying accounts
6 claims: 6 reported. 4 open questions
People reported harmed
1 person

AI system as recorded: AI-generated video persona of a woman on a social-media video account, which its operator says is made with artificial intelligence; the generation tool and the platform are not named

What Happened

The journey. The builder told G1 he left Imperatriz on a Friday and reached Belo Horizonte on Sunday 11 October 2026, a bus journey of more than 2,000 km. He said he had begun interacting with the account after its videos appeared in his social-media feeds, that the profile kept private conversations with him and that it repeatedly offered to pay his fare and collect him. He did not suspect a scam because he was never asked for money. He travelled without an address.

The persona. G1 describes the account's public videos: a woman with a realistic voice and human features who says she is looking for a man to live with her on a farm, and who promises to support him. The account had about 300,000 followers and carried advertisements for online sales.

The discovery. In Belo Horizonte he showed her photos to people in the street and asked a local radio station for help. Nobody knew her, and he said he felt deceived. The city's migrant reception unit gave him guidance about social-media scams, food and a bath, and issued a ticket to his home town, where he travelled on 13 October.

The operator's statement. On 14 October the account's administrator posted a video in which the persona says it is made of artificial intelligence, that it never conversed with anyone on the profile and that the aim was engagement for sales; it calls the man's account of messages a lie and warns that others may use its image. The creator, who stayed anonymous, told the press he set up the account in 2025 to attract buyers for goods advertised online and that the profile never messaged anyone or invited anyone to Belo Horizonte. The private messages the man describes have not been published, and who wrote them is not established.

Reported harm

According to the man's account to G1, he travelled more than 2,000 km by bus to meet a woman from AI-generated videos who did not exist, found himself in Belo Horizonte without an address, said he felt deceived, and received food and a ticket home from the city's social assistance service.

Outcome

Resolved

Belo Horizonte's Municipal Secretariat of Social Assistance and Human Rights gave the man guidance, food and a bath and issued a ticket home; he left on 13 October 2026. The Minas Gerais civil police said on 13 and 14 October that no police report had been registered and that it was not possible to say a crime had occurred. Agora Litoral reported that the profile was deactivated; the creator, quoted in the same report, said he had made the videos private.

What remains unknown

  • Who wrote the private messages the man describes; the operator denies the profile sent any, and the messages have not been published.
  • Which AI tool generated the persona and on which platform the account ran; the sources name neither.
  • What the journey cost him; no amount is reported.
  • How long he interacted with the account before travelling.

What the evidence supports

AI involvement: supported. The account's own administrator posted a video in which the persona says it is made of artificial intelligence, and its creator told the press he built the account to attract buyers and that he uses artificial intelligence to make sales (an operator admission; the tool is not named and no technical analysis is reported). G1 describes the persona's public videos, in which a woman with a realistic voice and appearance says she wants a man to live with her on a farm, and the man says he began interacting with the profile after those videos appeared in his feeds and travelled to meet her. The AI-generated persona therefore spoke to him through its videos (communicated_with). The operator denies that the profile sent private messages, so the messages the man describes are not attributed to AI.

6 claims: 6 reported. What the statuses mean

Reported The man says he began interacting with the account after its videos appeared in his feeds, that the profile kept private conversations with him and offered to pay his fare and collect him, and that he travelled by bus from Imperatriz without an address, leaving on a Friday and arriving in Belo Horizonte on Sunday 11 October 2026.

Causal attribution. The man's own account to G1; the private messages were not published.

  • g1.globo.com(opens in new tab) supports · Portuguese
    'O pedreiro começou a interagir nas redes sociais com o perfil'; 'Sempre oferecia para pagar minha passagem, me buscar em qualquer lugar, passar o endereço, e eram assim as propostas'; 'saí sexta-feira de Imperatriz (MA) e cheguei aqui [a Belo Horizonte] domingo (11)'; 'A viagem do pedreiro para BH, no entanto, ocorreu sem que ele tivesse o endereço dela.'
Reported The account's public videos show a woman with a realistic voice and human features who says she is looking for a man to live with her on a farm and promises to support him.

Causal attribution. G1's description of the public videos; the videos were not viewed by the research agent.

  • g1.globo.com(opens in new tab) supports · Portuguese
    'Com voz e traços humanos realistas, ela relata estar divorciada e à procura de um homem para morar em uma fazenda no interior.'; 'Eu gosto de ajudar, mas eu quero você mesmo para mim.'
  • g1.globo.com(opens in new tab) supports · Portuguese
    'Eu quero que você venha pra cá pra viver vida de rei. Olha o tamanho dessa fazenda que vai ser sua'
Reported The account's operator says the persona is made with artificial intelligence and was created for sales engagement, and denies that the profile messaged anyone or invited anyone to Belo Horizonte.

Causal attribution. The operator's own statements, reported by two outlets; his denial of messaging is not independently checked.

  • g1.globo.com(opens in new tab) supports · Portuguese
    'Vim aqui para dizer o óbvio: sou feita de inteligência artificial. Nunca conversei com ninguém nesse perfil. O intuito foi ganhar engajamento para vendas.'
  • agoralitoral.com.br(opens in new tab) supports · Portuguese
    'relatou que a conta foi estruturada em 2025 com o propósito de atrair potenciais compradores para mercadorias anunciadas online'; 'esse perfil nunca mandou mensagem para ninguém, nunca chamou ninguém para ir para Belo Horizonte'; 'Da mesma forma que eu uso isso, a inteligência artificial, para fazer vendas e ganhar uma renda'
Reported In Belo Horizonte he showed her photos to people, found that nobody knew her and said he felt deceived.

Causal attribution. The man's account; the deception by the persona's videos is his description of his experience.

  • g1.globo.com(opens in new tab) supports · Portuguese
    'Eu já andei com várias fotos, mostrando e perguntando se alguém conhecia essa pessoa e todos falaram que não. Então, eu me senti enganado'
Reported Belo Horizonte's social assistance service gave him guidance, food and a bath and issued a ticket home, and he left on 13 October 2026.

Causal attribution. The city secretariat's note as reported by G1.

  • g1.globo.com(opens in new tab) supports · Portuguese
    'o homem foi orientado a recorrer à Unidade de Acolhimento e Atendimento ao Migrante da Prefeitura de Belo Horizonte'; 'a prefeitura emitiu uma passagem para ele'; 'A viagem ocorreu na tarde desta terça-feira (13).'
Reported The Minas Gerais civil police said they had no report of the case and that it was not possible to say a crime had occurred.

Causal attribution. Police statements as reported by G1; no investigation is reported.

  • g1.globo.com(opens in new tab) supports · Portuguese
    'A Polícia Civil de Minas Gerais informou não ter registrado ocorrência do caso'
  • g1.globo.com(opens in new tab) supports · Portuguese
    'A corporação ressaltou que, até o momento, não é possível afirmar que houve crime no caso do pedreiro'

Sources

3 sources inspected, from 2 underlying accounts. Sources that repeat one account do not corroborate each other.

How the sources were read, and where the events happened

Read in Portuguese by the research agent (an AI) on 2026-10-16 (HTTP 200); passages translated by the research agent; no human translation. Applies to s1.

Read in Portuguese by the research agent (an AI) on 2026-10-16 (HTTP 200); passages translated by the research agent; no human translation. The report describes and quotes the operator's video; the video itself was not viewed. Applies to s2.

Read in Portuguese by the research agent (an AI) on 2026-10-16 (HTTP 200); passages translated by the research agent; no human translation. The creator's quotes come from his statement to the press through a social network; which outlet first obtained them is not stated. Applies to s3.

Event countries: Brazil. Affected-person countries: Brazil. Court countries: Unknown.

He travelled from Imperatriz, Maranhão, to Belo Horizonte, Minas Gerais, and returned to his home town in Tocantins, as G1 reports. Where the persona's operator is based is not stated.

Reviewed for publication 2026-10-16: Published because the man's account to G1 connects his journey to the persona's videos, and the account's operator has publicly said the persona is made with artificial intelligence. The two G1 reports and Agora Litoral were read; the private messages and the operator's video were not available.

People described

An adult builder from Maranhão who travelled to Belo Horizonte to meet the persona. He spoke to the press under his own name; he is not named here because the name adds nothing to the record.

People reported harmed in this case

1 person

0 AI participants · 1 other person harmed

One person: the builder who travelled to Belo Horizonte. He is counted as harmed by others' use of AI because he encountered the persona's videos; he did not use an AI tool himself. The account's followers are an audience and are not counted.

Counted once within this case. The same person may appear in other cases. This count does not establish AI causation.

Tags

#brazil#minas-gerais#ai-generated-persona#romance-deception#social-media#travel

Cite this case

Compiled per our published methodology: verification statuses, sourcing standards, and corrections process.

APA

NOPE. (2026). Brazilian builder travelled over 2,000 km to Belo Horizonte to meet a social-media woman who did not exist; the account's operator says the persona is AI-made. AI incidents. https://nope.net/incidents/2026-belo-horizonte-builder-travelled-2000-km-to-meet-ai-generated-persona-account-operator-says-it-is-ai

BibTeX

@misc{2026_belo_horizonte_builder_travelled_2000_km_to_meet_ai_generated_persona_account_operator_says_it_is_ai,
  title = {Brazilian builder travelled over 2,000 km to Belo Horizonte to meet a social-media woman who did not exist; the account's operator says the persona is AI-made},
  author = {NOPE},
  year = {2026},
  howpublished = {AI incidents},
  url = {https://nope.net/incidents/2026-belo-horizonte-builder-travelled-2000-km-to-meet-ai-generated-persona-account-operator-says-it-is-ai}
}

Related cases

Medium Unidentified video tool

Brazil: scammers used AI-cloned voices and images of children with cancer in fake donation campaigns; 16 arrested in Operação Sophia

On 14 July 2026 the Rio Grande do Sul Civil Police launched Operação Sophia against a group that used AI voice cloning and deepfake to turn real fundraising campaigns of children with cancer into fake donation appeals: AI-generated child voices asked for money in videos boosted by pages such as 'Clube de Doadores' and 'Unidos pelo Amor', leading donors to lookalike sites that issued Pix codes to shell companies. Sixteen people were arrested across five states. In the campaign that started the investigation — using the image of Kelen Santos's daughter, who was in cancer treatment — police traced R$294,500 diverted, and the investigation found a financial-hub company that moved more than R$1.7 million. The family had to tell congratulating donors that their money had gone to a scam.

High Unidentified video tool

Brazilian investigation alleges AI sexual-image abuse involving children

Brazilian reporting describes an investigation into allegations that a social-media creator used AI to make sexual material involving children. The record preserves the accusations and reported investigation rather than asserting a conviction.

High Gemini

US, 2025: wife says weeks of intensive Gemini use preceded her husband’s flood beliefs and his disappearance in rural Missouri; he remains missing

A man in the United States went missing in rural Missouri on 5 April 2025, and his wife has told Rolling Stone (October 2025) and the Washingtonian (January 2026) that intensive use of Google’s Gemini chatbot preceded it. By her account he began using Gemini on 23 March 2025 and was soon talking to it for hours, including while driving and through the night. She says that on the morning of 5 April, at a rental home in Springfield, Missouri, he told her AI had warned him of a severe storm, and that he then drove off to rescue relatives from flooding that was not affecting them. Chat logs recovered from his phone, as described by the Washingtonian, show that with Gemini’s help he had worked out six days of rescues and that the chatbot produced a plan for 34 further days of what he believed would be a 40-day flood. Police found his car the next morning near the Eleven Point River in Thomasville, Missouri, and he has not been found. His wife believes he would not have gone missing without the chatbot. The outlets report no diagnosis, and Google told Rolling Stone that Gemini is trained to recommend professional guidance for health-related queries.

Medium Unidentified video tool

Israel: indictment and police say a 20-year-old used AI-animated ID photos as fake verification videos to open credit cards in at least 33 people's names

According to an indictment filed on 16 July 2026 (date per Maariv), as reported by i24NEWS, a 20-year-old man impersonated at least 33 Israelis over about half a year, obtained credit cards in their names and used them for purchases of about 67,000 shekels in Israel and abroad, with attempted charges of more than 56,000 shekels more. Investigators collected fake identification videos of the victims that, according to the indictment as reported, he created with artificial intelligence and used to pass the card issuers' remote identification. Maariv reports, citing police, that the suspect cut the face photos from identity cards and animated them with AI software so that the card holder appeared to speak the required declarations. A police investigator told Maariv that investigators had to locate more than 50 people whose identities were used and that some victims were frightened when shown the videos of themselves in interrogation rooms. The victims who were questioned denied any connection to the cards. The investigator said most of them did not know their identities were being used and that the credit companies bore the direct financial loss. He was arrested on landing in Israel, did not cooperate with the investigation, and the prosecution asked for his detention until the end of proceedings.

If you or someone you know is struggling, free and confidential support is available. Find a helpline near you at Signpost.

Back to all incidents