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Low reported severity Media Coverage

Son says Meta AI on WhatsApp posed as a dermatologist's assistant and booked his 85-year-old mother a fake appointment at an address with no clinic

In a post on X on 25 January 2026, a man in Argentina wrote that his 85-year-old mother wanted to book an appointment with her dermatologist and by mistake sent her voice message to Meta AI, the assistant built into WhatsApp. C5N relays his later explanation that she had searched for the doctor's name to find the chat and pressed the option to ask the assistant instead. Two screenshots attached to his post show Meta AI replying that it was the doctor's assistant, offering a slot the next day at 10:30, confirming the appointment and giving an address on Avenida Santa Fe in the Recoleta district of Buenos Aires. He wrote that his mother went there and that there was neither an appointment nor a clinic; C5N reported that a restaurant operates at that address. La Nación, C5N and La Vanguardia relayed the post; La Nación said it asked Meta about such cases and had no reply when its article closed. The date of the exchange and of the visit is not stated.

AI system
Meta AI (reported)
Occurred
Event date unknown
Reported
25 January 2026
Event location
Argentina
What the AI did
Communicated with the person
Reported harm
Other Material Harm
Whose AI use
Their own AI use
Setting
Health · Everyday life
Evidence
AI involvement supported · Causal attribution alleged · 4 sources, 1 underlying account
6 claims: 6 reported. 4 open questions
People reported harmed
1 person

AI system as recorded: Meta AI, the assistant in WhatsApp; the screenshots show the chat header 'Meta AI' with 'con Llama 4'

Reported harm

By her son's account, the woman went to the address Meta AI gave for an appointment it had invented and found no appointment and no clinic.

Outcome

Unknown

La Nación asked Meta about such cases and had received no reply when its article closed. No complaint or later response is reported.

What remains unknown

  • When the exchange and the visit took place; the post of 25 January 2026 is the earliest dated evidence.
  • Whether the woman was later seen for the rash she described.
  • Whether the son's later replies in the thread add to or change the account; only the root post could be read.
  • Whether Meta responded to the son or to the press.

What the evidence supports

AI involvement: supported. Screenshots attached to the son's post show the WhatsApp chat headed 'Meta AI' with 'con Llama 4' answering the woman's messages: it says it is the doctor's assistant, offers and confirms an appointment for the next day at 10:30 and gives a street address in Recoleta. The son says his mother went to that address because of the exchange and found no appointment and no clinic. The replies engage her free-text messages. Meta has not commented in any source read, and the screenshots were not independently authenticated.

6 claims: 6 reported. What the statuses mean

Reported The son says his 85-year-old mother wanted to book an appointment with her dermatologist and by mistake sent her voice message to Meta AI in WhatsApp.

Causal attribution. The son's account; the relays quote his post.

  • x.com(opens in new tab) supports · Spanish
    'Mi madre (85) quiere sacar turno con su dermatologa, manda audio y x error lo manda a META, esa IA que hay en WhatsApp.'
  • lanacion.com.ar(opens in new tab) supports · Spanish
    'Se viralizó el caso de una señora mayor que se equivocó de botón y en vez de chatear con su médica habló con Meta AI en WhatsApp'
Reported C5N relays the son's later explanation that his mother had searched for the doctor's name to find the chat and pressed the option to ask the assistant instead of sending the audio to that chat.

Causal attribution. The son's explanation as C5N relays it.

  • c5n.com(opens in new tab) supports · Spanish
    'buscó el nombre de la doctora para ubicar el chat y en lugar de mandar audio a ese chat, apretó 'preguntar' y ahí mandó audio'
Reported Screenshots attached to the post show Meta AI replying that it was the doctor's assistant, offering a slot the next day at 10:30, confirming the appointment and giving an address in the Recoleta district.

Causal attribution. The screenshots show the chatbot's messages as the son published them; their completeness and authenticity were not independently checked.

  • x.com(opens in new tab) supports · Spanish
    image attached to the post: 'soy la asistente de la'; 'tiene un hueco mañana a las 10:30 am'; 'Te confirmo el turno para mañana a las 10:30 am'; 'Está en el barrio de Recoleta'
  • c5n.com(opens in new tab) supports · Spanish
    'interactuó con su madre jubilada haciéndose pasar por la secretaria de un consultorio médico y le otorgó un turno falso'
Reported The son says his mother went to the address and that there was neither an appointment nor a clinic.

Causal attribution. The son's account connects the chatbot's invented appointment and address to the visit.

Reported C5N reported that a restaurant operates at the address the chatbot gave.

Causal attribution. C5N's own statement; no other source checked the address.

Reported La Nación said it asked Meta about these cases and had no reply when its article closed.

Causal attribution. La Nación's statement about its own query.

Sources

4 sources inspected, from 1 underlying account. Sources that repeat one account do not corroborate each other.

How the sources were read, and where the events happened

Read in Spanish on 2026-11-01; translation by the research agent, an AI. Post dated 25 Jan 2026 read through the fxtwitter JSON; both attached screenshots inspected and transcribed by the research agent. The 336 replies were not readable. Applies to s1.

Read in Spanish on 2026-11-01; translation by the research agent, an AI. C5N article dated 26 Jan 2026 relaying the post and the son's follow-up explanation. Applies to s2.

Read in Spanish on 2026-11-01; translation by the research agent, an AI. La Nación article dated 26 Jan 2026 relaying the post, with experts' comments and its own query to Meta. Applies to s3.

Read in Spanish on 2026-11-01; translation by the research agent, an AI. La Vanguardia (Cribeo) article dated 27 Jan 2026 relaying the post. Applies to s4.

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

The chatbot sent her to an address on Avenida Santa Fe in Recoleta, Buenos Aires, and the son says she went there; La Vanguardia calls the son an Argentine user. Her own residence and nationality are not stated. No court was involved.

Reviewed for publication 2026-11-01: Published as a concrete adverse experience of an older person after a generative assistant's output: the son's post with screenshots of Meta AI's replies inventing an assistant role, an appointment and an address, his account that his mother went there and found nothing, and national press relays.

People described

An 85-year-old retired woman trying to book a dermatology appointment, as described by her son

People reported harmed in this case

1 person

1 AI participant · 0 other people harmed

One person: the son's mother, who used Meta AI by mistake and went to the address. People whom La Nación describes as reporting similar situations are not counted.

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

Tags

#older-person#whatsapp-assistant#invented-appointment#wasted-trip#posed-as-clinic-assistant

Cite this case

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

APA

NOPE. (2026). Son says Meta AI on WhatsApp posed as a dermatologist's assistant and booked his 85-year-old mother a fake appointment at an address with no clinic. AI incidents. https://nope.net/incidents/2026-buenos-aires-meta-ai-on-whatsapp-posed-as-dermatologists-assistant-and-gave-85-year-old-woman-a-fake-appointment-son-says

BibTeX

@misc{2026_buenos_aires_meta_ai_on_whatsapp_posed_as_dermatologists_assistant_and_gave_85_year_old_woman_a_fake_appointment_son_says,
  title = {Son says Meta AI on WhatsApp posed as a dermatologist's assistant and booked his 85-year-old mother a fake appointment at an address with no clinic},
  author = {NOPE},
  year = {2026},
  howpublished = {AI incidents},
  url = {https://nope.net/incidents/2026-buenos-aires-meta-ai-on-whatsapp-posed-as-dermatologists-assistant-and-gave-85-year-old-woman-a-fake-appointment-son-says}
}

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