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NOPE
Medium reported severity Criminal Charges

Changsha court jails man who used AI face videos made from three victims' photos to pass a payment platform's face check and take more than 50,000 yuan

According to a CCTV report of August 2026 quoting the deputy head of the criminal division of the Yuhua District People's Court in Changsha, Hunan, a university student close to graduation bought access to a technique that turned still face photos into AI-generated moving face videos able to pass one bank payment platform's face-recognition check. Upstream members of fraud groups, which CCTV says usually lure people into installing remote-control software, sent him the victims' personal details and photos; he converted the photos into AI face videos through a third-party website and, with the verification codes, reset the victims' payment passwords so that a money-laundering crew could move money out of their linked bank accounts. In under four months the accounts of three victims lost more than 50,000 yuan in total. The court, taking into account his surrender, admission and compensation of the victims, sentenced him to one year and ten months in prison and a 3,000 yuan fine; the judgment has taken effect. The dates of the thefts and of the judgment are not reported.

AI system
Unidentified video tool
Occurred
Event date unknown
Reported
16 August 2026
Event location
China
What the AI did
Depicted or impersonated the person
Reported harm
Financial Loss
Whose AI use
Someone else’s AI use
Setting
Finance · Privacy · Justice
Evidence
AI involvement reported · Causal attribution supported · 2 sources, 1 underlying account
4 claims: 4 reported. 4 open questions
People reported harmed
3 people

AI system as recorded: Third-party website service that converted still face photos into AI-generated moving face videos accepted by a payment platform's face-recognition check, as described by the court (tool not named)

What Happened

The scheme. CCTV's report, relayed by Guangming Online and The Beijing News on 16 August 2026, says the Yuhua District People's Court in Changsha, Hunan, recently tried a case of bank-card theft using face-forgery videos generated with AI. The defendant, a university student close to graduation, bought from an illegal third-party website a technique that converted a still face photo into an AI-generated moving video able to pass the face-recognition check of a bank payment platform, then advertised his service in underground chat groups.

How the victims were reached. CCTV reports that fraud groups in this chain usually posed as short-video platform customer service or game streamers to induce people to install remote-control software and so obtained their personal information. According to Lan Yi, deputy head of the court's criminal division, upstream contacts sent victims' names, ID numbers, phone numbers, photos and payment-platform verification codes to the defendant, who uploaded the victims' photos to the third-party website to convert them into AI face videos, used the videos and codes to reset the victims' payment passwords, and passed their payment codes to a money-laundering crew that moved money out of the linked bank accounts.

Loss and sentence. In under four months the bank accounts of three victims were drained of more than 50,000 yuan in total. Considering his surrender, admission of guilt and compensation paid to the victims, the court sentenced him to one year and ten months in prison and a 3,000 yuan fine; the judgment has taken effect. The report does not give the dates of the thefts or of the judgment, name the payment platform or the AI tool, or say how much was recovered beyond the compensation.

Reported harm

According to the court as reported by CCTV, AI face videos made from three victims' photos passed a payment platform's face check, their payment passwords were reset and more than 50,000 yuan in total was taken from their linked bank accounts within four months; the court notes the defendant compensated the victims.

Outcome

Resolved

The Yuhua District People's Court in Changsha sentenced the defendant to one year and ten months in prison and a 3,000 yuan fine, taking into account his surrender, admission of guilt and compensation paid to the victims; the judgment has taken effect (CCTV report relayed by Guangming Online and The Beijing News, 16 August 2026). No later development was found in Google News and web searches on 30 October 2026; an October 2026 Sina Finance roundup repeats the case without new facts.

What remains unknown

  • Dates of the account takeovers and of the judgment (the report says only that the court 'recently' tried the case and that the thefts spanned under four months)
  • Which payment platform and which AI website were used
  • How the loss was split among the three victims and how much compensation was paid
  • Whether the upstream fraud groups and the laundering crew were prosecuted

What the evidence supports

AI involvement: reported. The court's deputy criminal-division head, as quoted by CCTV, says the defendant uploaded the victims' photos to a third-party website that converted them into AI-generated moving face videos ('转换成AI动态人脸视频'), and that he used these videos with verification codes to reset the victims' payment passwords, after which money was moved out of their linked bank accounts (c1-c3). The AI-generated videos impersonated each victim toward the payment platform's face check (depicted_or_impersonated), and passing that check is what let the passwords be reset and the money be taken. The tool is not named and the judgment text was not read.

4 claims: 4 reported. What the statuses mean

Reported The Yuhua District People's Court in Changsha, Hunan, tried a case of bank-card theft using AI-generated face-forgery videos; the defendant, a university student close to graduation, had bought from an illegal website a technique that turned still face photos into AI moving videos able to pass a bank payment platform's face-recognition check.

Causal attribution. One origin: CCTV's report of the court case, relayed by two outlets.

  • m.gmw.cn(opens in new tab) supports · Chinese
    近日，湖南省长沙市雨花区人民法院审理了一起“不法者利用AI技术生成的人脸伪造视频盗刷银行卡”案件。; 他通过第三方非法网站购买了一项“能将静态人脸照片转化为可通过某银行支付平台人脸识别验证的AI动态视频”的技术。
  • bjnews.com.cn(opens in new tab) supports · Chinese
    近日，湖南省长沙市雨花区人民法院审理了一起“不法者利用AI技术生成的人脸伪造视频盗刷银行卡”案件。; 他通过第三方非法网站购买了一项“能将静态人脸照片转化为可通过某银行支付平台人脸识别验证的AI动态视频”的技术。
Reported CCTV reports that fraud groups in this chain usually induce victims to install remote-control software to obtain their personal information; according to the court's deputy criminal-division head, upstream contacts sent the defendant the victims' details and photos, and he converted the photos into AI face videos through a third-party website and used them with verification codes to reset the victims' payment passwords, after which a laundering crew moved money from their linked bank accounts.

Causal attribution. CCTV's narration (fraud groups' usual method) and the judge's account of the case as relayed by CCTV; one origin. The AI step is the court's description of the evidence.

  • m.gmw.cn(opens in new tab) supports · Chinese
    诈骗团伙通常冒充短视频平台客服或者游戏主播，以关闭自动扣费、赠送游戏装备为诱饵，诱导受害人下载控制软件，从而获取其个人信息。; 通过该网站转换成AI动态人脸视频。; 利用转换的AI动态人脸视频及验证码信息，重置被害人的支付密码。; 之后会有上线将获取到的被害人姓名、身份证号码、手机号码、照片、支付平台验证码等个人信息发送给被告人; 由“洗钱车队”通过扫码的方式将被害人在第三方支付平台所绑定的银行账户资金予以转移
  • bjnews.com.cn(opens in new tab) supports · Chinese
    诈骗团伙通常冒充短视频平台客服或者游戏主播，以关闭自动扣费、赠送游戏装备为诱饵，诱导受害人下载控制软件，从而获取其个人信息。; 利用转换的AI动态人脸视频及验证码信息，重置被害人的支付密码。; 之后会有上线将获取到的被害人姓名、身份证号码、手机号码、照片、支付平台验证码等个人信息发送给被告人; 由“洗钱车队”通过扫码的方式将被害人在第三方支付平台所绑定的银行账户资金予以转移
Reported In under four months the bank accounts of three victims were drained of more than 50,000 yuan in total.

Causal attribution. CCTV's account of the court's findings; one origin.

  • m.gmw.cn(opens in new tab) supports · Chinese
    就这样，在不到四个月的时间内，三名被害人的银行账户先后被盗刷共计5万余元。
  • bjnews.com.cn(opens in new tab) supports · Chinese
    就这样，在不到四个月的时间内，三名被害人的银行账户先后被盗刷共计5万余元。
Reported Taking into account the defendant's surrender, admission of guilt and compensation to the victims, the court sentenced him to one year and ten months in prison and a 3,000 yuan fine; the judgment has taken effect.

Causal attribution. CCTV's account of the judgment; the judgment text itself was not read. One origin.

  • m.gmw.cn(opens in new tab) supports · Chinese
    具有自首情节，认罪悔罪表现及对被害人的经济赔偿等情况; 有期徒刑一年十个月，并处罚金3000元。目前，该案件判决已生效。
  • bjnews.com.cn(opens in new tab) supports · Chinese
    具有自首情节，认罪悔罪表现及对被害人的经济赔偿等情况; 有期徒刑一年十个月，并处罚金3000元。目前，该案件判决已生效。

Sources

2 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 Chinese on 2026-10-30; translated by the research agent (an AI). Guangming Online page dated 2026-08-16 19:34, metadata 'from:央视网' (CCTV), HTTP 200. Applies to s1.

Read in Chinese on 2026-10-30; translated by the research agent (an AI). The Beijing News relay opening '据央视新闻消息' (per CCTV News), 16 August 2026, HTTP 200; same CCTV origin as s1. Applies to s2.

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

Event: the defendant operated the scheme and was tried by the Yuhua District People's Court in Changsha, Hunan (s1, s2); the account takeovers on a Chinese bank payment platform are part of the case the court tried. Affected people: the sources do not say where the three victims live, so the list is empty. Court: Changsha, China.

Reviewed for publication 2026-10-30: Published as a reported court case: CCTV quotes the deputy head of the Yuhua District court's criminal division describing how AI face videos made from three victims' photos passed a payment platform's face check, letting their payment passwords be reset and more than 50,000 yuan be taken, and reports the effective sentence. All claims rest on one CCTV report relayed by two outlets; the judgment itself was not read.

People described

Three people whose payment-platform accounts were taken over with AI face videos made from their photos and whose linked bank accounts were drained (how each victim was first reached is not reported individually)

People reported harmed in this case

3 people

0 AI participants · 3 other people harmed

The court, as reported by CCTV, says the bank accounts of three victims ('三名被害人') were drained. Victims of the upstream fraud groups in other cases are not counted.

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

Tags

#ai-face-video#face-recognition-bypass#account-takeover#bank-card-theft#criminal-conviction#china

Cite this case

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

APA

NOPE. (2026). Changsha court jails man who used AI face videos made from three victims' photos to pass a payment platform's face check and take more than 50,000 yuan. AI incidents. https://nope.net/incidents/2026-changsha-court-jails-man-who-used-ai-face-videos-made-from-victims-photos-to-pass-payment-face-checks-and-drain-accounts

BibTeX

@misc{2026_changsha_court_jails_man_who_used_ai_face_videos_made_from_victims_photos_to_pass_payment_face_checks_and_drain_accounts,
  title = {Changsha court jails man who used AI face videos made from three victims' photos to pass a payment platform's face check and take more than 50,000 yuan},
  author = {NOPE},
  year = {2026},
  howpublished = {AI incidents},
  url = {https://nope.net/incidents/2026-changsha-court-jails-man-who-used-ai-face-videos-made-from-victims-photos-to-pass-payment-face-checks-and-drain-accounts}
}

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