Skip to main content
NOPE
Medium News report Investigation Opened

Miami: scammers cloned immigration attorney Ángel Leal's face and voice with AI to defraud immigrants seeking legal help

From around October 2025, criminals used AI to clone the image, voice, name, signature and firm logo of Ángel Leal, a long-established immigration attorney in Doral, Florida. They created fake videos, look-alike websites, forged contracts and even fabricated Zoom 'immigration hearings' to persuade immigrants to pay for legal services Leal never provided. Immigrants were defrauded of money, and some believed their cases were progressing when they were not; Leal received one to two defrauded callers a day, changed his phone number, hired an anti-piracy firm that removed thousands of fake profiles and videos, and reported the fraud to local police and federal authorities.

AI System

AI voice- and video-cloning / deepfake tools (not identified in the inspected reporting)

Occurred

Oct 2025

Reported

4 June 2026

Event location

United States

Platform

other

What the evidence supports

AI involvement: supported. Leal and multiple outlets state that his real videos were manipulated with AI to clone his face and voice; NBC News, NBC Miami, CBS Miami and WLRN carry his account, and an anti-piracy firm documented thousands of AI-generated fake profiles. The specific AI tools are not named.

AI-to-person relation

  • Depicted or impersonated the person

Core relations are communication, acting on someone’s behalf, and depiction or impersonation. Decision and claim relations are retained as contextual cases.

Someone else’s AI use. Settings: Justice, Finance, Everyday life.

Claim status: Corroborated

Criminals used AI to clone Ángel Leal's image, name, voice, signature and firm logo, producing fake videos, look-alike websites, forged contracts and fabricated Zoom hearings that offered immigration services (residency, citizenship 'without an exam', work permits) he never provided.

Causal attribution: Leal's own account, carried by four independent outlets.

  • News report (supports): 'his image and name and even his voice have been cloned with artificial intelligence to deceive desperate immigrants'; 'fake contracts bearing his firm's logo, forged signatures, websites that mimic his site... entirely fabricated immigration hearings'.
  • News report (supports): 'criminals are creating fake videos using his image, voice and name'; the WhatsApp-to-Zelle/Venmo script.
  • News report (supports): 'scammers have used AI to produce fake immigration hearings over Zoom to dupe immigrants'.

Claim status: Corroborated

Immigrants were defrauded of money paying for services Leal never provided, and some ended up with deportation orders believing their cases were in progress.

Causal attribution: Reported by Leal and immigration-lawyer groups; individual victims are not named and the total is not quantified.

  • News report (supports): 'some victims end up with deportation orders without having filed any real paperwork, believing their case was in progress'; payments via Zelle/Venmo/Cash App.
  • News report (supports): 'It's gotten to the point where I literally have one to two people every day, all day, answering calls of people who have been defrauded or scammed'.
  • News report (context): Leal describes the harm to 'other people's needs'; ABA/AILA describe victims paying scammers who impersonated lawyers.

Claim status: Corroborated

Leal changed his phone number, hired an anti-piracy firm that removed thousands of fake profiles and videos (about 6,454 since March per NBC Miami; more than 6,600 by June per WLRN), and reported the fraud to Doral police and federal authorities.

Causal attribution: Leal and his anti-piracy vendor, as reported; the two removal figures cover different windows.

  • News report (supports): '6,454 fake profiles linked to these scams have been taken down' since March.
  • News report (supports): 'in June alone... they had taken down over 6,600 fake videos and profiles'; 'Leal has filed a report with the Doral Police Department.'

What remains unknown

  • No individual defrauded immigrant is named and the total amount lost is not established; the reported per-victim figure (about $4,820/$5,000) comes from a Latin Times headline not inspected in full.
  • No arrests are reported and no defendant is identified.
  • Whether the fabricated 'deportation orders' outcome affected specific named people is not established.
Source reading, translation and location

News report · en · Source inspected

Read in English on 2026-09-17 (datePublished 2026-06-04). NBC News national report; Leal interview, FTC/FBI context, ABA and AILA comment.

News report · en · Source inspected

Read in English on 2026-09-17 (datePublished 2026-06-05). NBC6 South Florida; Leal interview, fake videos and WhatsApp/Zelle scheme; story translated from Spanish with an AI tool and editor-reviewed.

News report · en · Source inspected

Read in English on 2026-09-17 via the Internet Archive capture 20260728171300 (CBS live returns HTTP 406); datePublished 2026-06-09. CBS News Miami; Leal interview, the $2,200 residency-video scheme, ~6,500 profiles removed.

News report · en · Source inspected

Read in English on 2026-09-17 (datePublished 2026-08-20). WLRN Public Media; Leal realised the problem last October, one to two defrauded callers a day, 6,600+ removals in June, fake Zoom hearings, Doral police report.

Event countries: United States. Affected-person countries: United States. Court countries: Unknown.

Event: South Florida (Doral/Miami); Leal practises there and reported to Doral police (WLRN, NBC Miami). Affected people are immigrants in South Florida. No court proceeding established.

Reviewed for publication 2026-09-17: Published under the 2026-09-15 charter as an AI-impersonation case with real harm: a named attorney's likeness and voice were cloned to defraud immigrants, causing him reputational and business harm and causing victims financial and reported legal harm. Four independent chains, including his own on-camera interviews; victim count left partial because individual victims are unquantified.

What Happened

Ángel Leal has practised immigration law in South Florida for more than 30 years, most recently in Doral. He realised in October 2025 that immigrants were calling his office about cases he had never handled, after scammers used AI to clone his image, name, voice and even fabricated hearings. In manipulated videos a digital version of Leal offers residency or citizenship 'without an exam', work permits or the return of deported people, directing viewers to a WhatsApp number where fake contracts bearing his firm's logo and forged signatures are exchanged and payment is requested through Zelle, Venmo or Cash App. Some fraudulent videos feature fake client testimonials or people posing as ICE agents. Leal told NBC News, NBC Miami, CBS News Miami and WLRN that the scheme has escalated sharply, that some victims end up with deportation orders believing their cases were in progress, and that he answers one to two defrauded callers a day. He hired an anti-piracy firm, changed his personal phone number, and reported the matter to Doral police and federal authorities; the American Bar Association and the American Immigration Lawyers Association describe a broader wave of AI-driven attorney impersonation exploiting fear under intensified US immigration enforcement.

Reported harm

An immigration attorney's identity was cloned with AI and used to defraud immigrants, causing him reputational harm and business disruption (he changed his phone number and hired an anti-piracy firm) and causing defrauded immigrants financial loss, with some reportedly left facing deportation orders after believing their cases were progressing.

Reputational HarmFinancial LossLegal Harm

Outcome

Ongoing

Leal filed a report with the Doral Police Department and said he is cooperating with federal authorities; the FBI's Chicago field office issued a public warning in May 2026 about scammers impersonating lawyers and immigration officials nationwide. Leal hired an online anti-piracy company that, by June 2026, had removed more than 6,600 fake videos and profiles (WLRN) / about 6,454 fake profiles since March (NBC Miami). No arrests are reported in the inspected sources.

People described

Ángel Leal (also styled Angel Leal Jr.), an immigration attorney in Doral, Florida, named in his own interviews; and immigrants seeking legal help who were defrauded, none of whom is named in the inspected reporting

People reported harmed in this case

At least 1 person

0 AI participants · 1 other person harmed

Additional affected people are described without a reliable count.

One counted, identified harmed person: Ángel Leal, whose likeness and voice were cloned and whose practice was disrupted. An unquantified additional group of immigrants was defrauded (Leal reports one to two defrauded callers a day; one legal immigrant reportedly lost about $4,820 per a Latin Times headline not inspected in full); no reliable victim count is established, so the status is partial.

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

Tags

#deepfake#voice-clone#impersonation#immigration#fraud#united-states#florida#depicted-or-impersonated

Cite this case

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

APA

NOPE. (2026). Miami: scammers cloned immigration attorney Ángel Leal's face and voice with AI to defraud immigrants seeking legal help. NOPE: AI and people. https://nope.net/incidents/2026-leal-ai-impersonation-immigration-scam

BibTeX

@misc{2026_leal_ai_impersonation_immigration_scam,
  title = {Miami: scammers cloned immigration attorney Ángel Leal's face and voice with AI to defraud immigrants seeking legal help},
  author = {NOPE},
  year = {2026},
  howpublished = {NOPE: AI and people},
  url = {https://nope.net/incidents/2026-leal-ai-impersonation-immigration-scam}
}

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