Skip to main content
NOPE
Low reported severity Media Coverage

Mayor of an Italian town reports AI-made voice messages in the parish priest's voice asking residents for money; the priest warns parishioners it is not him

At the Tolentino (Marche, Italy) council session of 24 September 2026 the mayor, Mauro Sclavi, reported attempted scams in the town: some residents had been telephoned by people posing as carabinieri from Macerata, and others had received voice messages requesting money that used the voice and name of the parish priest of the town's pastoral unit. According to the mayor, as reported by Corriere Adriatico and Picchio News, the messages were made with artificial intelligence, which reproduced the priest's voice and his South American accent faithfully. The priest told Corriere Adriatico that a parishioner had called him saying the parishioner's mother had received such a message, that he had told him it was a scam, and he warned parishioners: 'Non cadete nelle trappola, non sono io'. No payment, loss or identified victim is reported; the mayor asked residents to verify callers and report attempts to the police.

AI system
Unidentified voice-cloning tool
Occurred
Event date unknown
Reported
24 September 2026
Event location
Italy
What the AI did
Depicted or impersonated the person · Communicated with the person
Reported harm
Reputational Harm
Whose AI use
Someone else’s AI use
Setting
Everyday life
Evidence
AI involvement reported · Causal attribution alleged · 2 sources, 1 underlying account
3 claims: 3 reported. 4 open questions
People reported harmed
1 person

AI system as recorded: Unidentified voice-cloning tool, described by the mayor of Tolentino (as reported by Corriere Adriatico and Picchio News) as artificial intelligence used to reproduce the parish priest's voice and accent in voice messages requesting money

What Happened

The alert. Corriere Adriatico reports that at the council session of 24 September 2026 the mayor of Tolentino, Mauro Sclavi, raised the alarm over voice messages counterfeited with artificial intelligence and fake carabinieri, after several scam attempts in the town. Some people had been telephoned by self-styled carabinieri from Macerata; others had received voice messages requesting money that used the voice and name of the parish priest of pastoral unit number 8. The paper writes that the use of artificial intelligence made the messages particularly insidious because it reproduced the priest's typical South American accent faithfully. Picchio News, reporting the same session on 24 September, writes that according to the mayor the fraudsters used artificial-intelligence tools to reproduce the priest's voice and accent extremely faithfully so as to make the request more credible.

The priest's account. The priest told Corriere Adriatico that a parishioner had called him the other day saying that the parishioner's mother had received such a message, and that he had told him it was a scam. He warned parishioners: 'Non cadete nelle trappola, non sono io'. The paper notes he was preparing to leave the town for a mission abroad on 14 October.

What is not established. Neither paper reports a payment, a loss, a complaint or an identified recipient beyond the parishioner's mother; how many residents received the messages, when they were sent, who made them and what tool was used are not stated. The description of the messages as AI-made is the mayor's, as relayed by both papers; no technical examination is reported.

Reported harm

The parish priest's voice and name were used, according to the mayor's council statement as reported by Corriere Adriatico and Picchio News, in AI-made voice messages asking residents for money; a parishioner's mother received one, and the priest publicly warned parishioners that it was not him. No payment or loss is reported.

How Harm Occurred

Voice messages that the mayor describes as made with artificial intelligence imitated the parish priest's voice, accent and name to ask residents for money; the priest's identity was used toward his own parishioners and he had to warn them publicly that the voice was not his.

Outcome

Ongoing

The mayor raised the alarm at the council session of 24 September 2026 and asked residents to verify the identity of callers and report attempts to the police; the priest publicly warned parishioners (Corriere Adriatico, Picchio News). No complaint, arrest, payment or loss is reported in the inspected sources.

What remains unknown

  • When the messages were sent, how many residents received them and through which messaging service.
  • Who produced the messages and with what tool; no examination confirms the AI description.
  • Whether anyone paid money or filed a complaint.
  • Whether the fake-carabinieri calls and the voice messages came from the same people.

What the evidence supports

AI involvement: reported. The mayor of Tolentino, as reported by Corriere Adriatico and Picchio News from the council session of 24 September 2026, described voice messages counterfeited with artificial intelligence that reproduced the parish priest's voice and South American accent and used his name to request money from residents. That generated imitation is the reported harm: the priest's identity was used toward his parishioners, one parishioner's mother received a message, and the priest publicly told parishioners the voice was not his. No tool is named, no examination is reported and the research agent did not hear the messages.

3 claims: 3 reported. What the statuses mean

Reported At the council session of 24 September 2026 the mayor of Tolentino reported that some residents had received voice messages requesting money that used the voice and name of the parish priest, and that others had been called by people posing as carabinieri from Macerata.

Causal attribution. Both papers report the mayor's statement at the same council session (one origin).

  • corriereadriatico.it(opens in new tab) supports · Italian
    'È l’allarme lanciato dal sindaco Mauro Sclavi durante la seduta di ieri del consiglio comunale, dopo che in città si sono registrati alcuni tentativi di truffa.'; 'ad altre sono arrivati messaggi vocali nei quali venivano avanzate richieste di denaro utilizzando la voce e il nome di don Ariel Valentin Veloz, parroco dell’Unità pastorale numero 8.'
  • picchionews.it(opens in new tab) supports · Italian
    'Alcuni cittadini hanno, infatti, ricevuto telefonate da persone che si sono presentate come carabinieri di Macerata oppure messaggi vocali nei quali, attraverso una voce artificiale, venivano avanzate richieste di denaro a nome del parroco della chiesa di San Francesco.'
Reported According to the mayor, as reported by both papers, the voice messages were made with artificial intelligence, which reproduced the priest's voice and his South American accent faithfully.

Causal attribution. The AI description is the mayor's, relayed by both papers; no tool or technical examination is reported.

  • corriereadriatico.it(opens in new tab) supports · Italian
    'A rendere particolarmente insidiosi i messaggi è l’utilizzo dell’intelligenza artificiale, che ha consentito di riprodurre in maniera fedele anche il tipico accento sudamericano del sacerdote'
  • picchionews.it(opens in new tab) supports · Italian
    'Secondo quanto riferito dal sindaco, i truffatori avrebbero utilizzato strumenti di intelligenza artificiale per riprodurre in maniera estremamente fedele la voce e il tipico accento sudamericano del sacerdote'
Reported The priest said a parishioner had called him saying the parishioner's mother had received such a message, that he told him it was a scam, and he warned parishioners that the voice was not his.

Causal attribution. The priest's own statements to Corriere Adriatico; the parishioner and his mother are not otherwise described.

  • corriereadriatico.it(opens in new tab) supports · Italian
    '«Non cadete nelle trappola, non sono io».'; '«L’altro giorno un fedele mi ha chiamato dicendomi che la madre aveva ricevuto un simile messaggio e gli ho detto che era una truffa».'

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 Italian by the research agent (an AI) on 2026-10-09 and translated by the research agent (an AI) into English; no human translator or reviewer was involved. Reports the mayor's council statement and adds the priest's own statements to the paper; HTTP 200. Applies to s1.

Read in Italian by the research agent (an AI) on 2026-10-09 and translated by the research agent (an AI) into English; no human translator or reviewer was involved. Reports the same council statement by the mayor; HTTP 200. Applies to s2.

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

Both papers place the messages, the recipients and the parish in Tolentino, Marche, Italy, and the alert at the town council. Where the messages were produced is not stated. No court proceeding is reported.

Reviewed for publication 2026-10-09: Published as a core case (depicted_or_impersonated, communicated_with) at low severity: a town mayor, speaking at a council session reported by two local papers, described voice messages made with artificial intelligence that reproduced the parish priest's voice and accent and used his name to request money from residents; the priest confirmed a parishioner's mother had received one and publicly warned parishioners it was not him. The priest is a public community figure named in both headlines; no recipient is identified, no payment or loss is reported and no tool is named.

People described

The parish priest of a pastoral unit in Tolentino, whose voice and name were used in voice messages requesting money from residents; residents who received the messages, including a parishioner's mother

People reported harmed in this case

1 person

0 AI participants · 1 other person harmed

One person counted: the parish priest whose voice and name were used in the money-request messages (Corriere Adriatico, Picchio News). Residents who received the messages are described only as 'alcune persone' (Corriere Adriatico) and 'alcuni cittadini' (Picchio News), with one parishioner's mother mentioned by the priest; they are intended targets of the money requests, no harm to any recipient is described, and they are not counted, so the count is complete at one. People called by fake carabinieri are a separate method and not counted.

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

Tags

#voice_cloning#impersonation#phone_scam#religious_community#italy

Cite this case

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

APA

NOPE. (2026). Mayor of an Italian town reports AI-made voice messages in the parish priest's voice asking residents for money; the priest warns parishioners it is not him. AI incidents. https://nope.net/incidents/2026-marche-town-parish-priest-voice-cloned-in-ai-voice-messages-requesting-money-mayor-alert

BibTeX

@misc{2026_marche_town_parish_priest_voice_cloned_in_ai_voice_messages_requesting_money_mayor_alert,
  title = {Mayor of an Italian town reports AI-made voice messages in the parish priest's voice asking residents for money; the priest warns parishioners it is not him},
  author = {NOPE},
  year = {2026},
  howpublished = {AI incidents},
  url = {https://nope.net/incidents/2026-marche-town-parish-priest-voice-cloned-in-ai-voice-messages-requesting-money-mayor-alert}
}

Related cases

Low Unidentified voice-cloning tool

Singer Samuel Sarmiento, formerly of Banda Los Recoditos, warns followers that fake videos using his voice cloned with AI are asking for money for his mother's funeral, hours after he announced her death in September 2026

Samuel Sarmiento, a former lead singer of Banda Los Recoditos, announced his mother's death on social media in late September 2026. Hours later he posted a video on his official Instagram account warning that people were circulating fake videos using his voice, cloned with AI, in which he appeared to ask for money to cover her funeral costs. 'No se vale que haya gente tan ruin que ande pidiendo dinero con mi voz, con IA, para el sepelio de mi madre', he said, adding that he was not asking anyone for money. La Razón, Récord, La Mejor and El Diario de Sonora relayed his video on 30 September 2026. No report says whether anyone paid, and no police complaint is reported.

Low Unidentified voice-cloning tool

Phagwara, Punjab: after unrest at Lovely Professional University, a video of the local Superintendent of Police circulates with an AI-made voice saying a relative of the Union Home Minister was behind the violence; Punjab Police call it fake (CyberPeace dates a Kapurthala Police post to 29 September 2026) and a fact-checker finds the original footage

India TV reported on 30 September 2026 that, after violence at Lovely Professional University in Punjab, a video of Phagwara's Superintendent of Police went viral in which the officer's voice claims that a relative of the Union Home Minister was behind the violence and that a police team had gone to Delhi to find him. Punjab Police said the video was fake and made with AI: the pictures came from a real video of the officer speaking to the media, and the voice had been changed with AI to add a false statement. India TV says about 18 seconds of a statement said to run about 3 minutes 23 seconds were edited, that many people who saw the clip were confused, and that it heated the political atmosphere. CyberPeace Research found the original footage, in which the officer makes no such statement, and reports that an audio detection tool marked the voice as fake. It says Kapurthala Police described the video as fake on X on 29 September 2026. Who made the clip is not reported.

Low Unidentified voice-cloning tool (suspected)

Elderly woman in Varese province rushes out after a landline call in what sounded like her daughter's voice claiming injury; daughter suspects an AI voice clone

On Wednesday 8 July 2026 a 71-year-old woman in Azzate, in the province of Varese (Italy), answered a landline call in which a voice she took to be her daughter's said she had a cut throat and begged her to come and help. She ran to her daughter's home in the same town and found her unharmed on the sofa. The daughter, who went to the carabinieri, told La Prealpina that the caller's voice was her own and that it appeared to have been cloned, adding that she had been told it was not the only such case in the area in those days. The newspaper and La Provincia di Varese, which republished the account on 7 October 2026, present the call as a probable attempt to draw the woman out of her house so that thieves could enter, and suggest her husband's return at about the same time may have foiled it. No theft or loss is reported; the mother was to file a formal complaint. No investigator or examiner is reported to have confirmed that the voice was generated with AI.

Low Unidentified image tool (reported)

Polish outlets report YouTube videos falsely announcing the deaths of a TV presenter and the First Lady with AI-generated hospital-bed images; reported to NASK

Polish outlets reported on 4 October 2026 that a YouTube channel published videos whose titles and thumbnails falsely announced the deaths of television presenter Omenaa Mensah and of First Lady Marta Nawrocka, each shown in a hospital bed. Plejada describes the Mensah thumbnail as a graphic generated with artificial intelligence; Fakt describes the Nawrocka thumbnail as an AI-generated photo with a caption suggesting something terrible had happened to her. Mensah's husband, InPost founder Rafał Brzoska, posted on 3 and 4 October that his wife was alive, that one channel had been 'killing off' dozens of well-known people for weeks, that the matter was reported to NASK and the channel blocked, and that the videos were secured for the National Prosecutor's Office with a request for an investigation. He also wrote to President Nawrocki about the First Lady video. Neither depicted woman has commented publicly in the inspected sources; no deceived viewer or financial loss is reported.

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