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Low reported severity Criminal Charges

Primorye police say fraudsters used a deepfake of the regional governor in a video call to draw a pensioner into a month-long scam

The press service of the Interior Ministry's Primorsky Krai directorate said on 21 October 2026 that it had stopped an online fraud in which scammers used deepfake technology. According to the release, a 77-year-old resident of the Khorolsky district was sent a video-conference link in a messenger app and saw on screen a person resembling the region's governor, who told him of a cyberattack on the regional administration and stolen funds routed abroad through his bank account. He was passed to accomplices posing as law enforcement and financial-monitoring officials, who called him daily for a month and urged him to hand over his savings. He withdrew one million roubles but became suspicious and went to the police, who arrested a courier when he handed her a dummy package. A criminal case for attempted large-scale fraud was opened. The police did not say how they established that a deepfake was used.

AI system
Unidentified video tool
Occurred
Event date unknown
Reported
21 October 2026
Event location
Russia
What the AI did
Depicted or impersonated the person
Reported harm
Other Material Harm
Whose AI use
Someone else’s AI use
Setting
Finance · 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: A deepfake video likeness of the Primorsky Krai governor shown in a video conference, as described by the regional police; the tool is not identified

What Happened

The call. The release by the press service of the Interior Ministry's Primorsky Krai directorate, headed "В Приморском крае полиция пресекла онлайн-аферу с использованием мошенниками технологии дипфейк" (police in Primorsky Krai stop an online fraud in which fraudsters used deepfake technology), says that remote fraudsters sent a 77-year-old local resident a link to a video-conference platform in a messenger app. Following it, he saw on screen a person who resembled the region's governor. The fake governor told him of a cyberattack on the administration and of stolen funds moved abroad through his bank account, then passed him to accomplices posing as law enforcement and Rosfinmonitoring officials.

A month of calls. According to the release, the foreign-based fraudsters called him every day for a month, telling him that 60 million roubles had been transferred in his name to an unfriendly state and that to prove his innocence he had to declare all his savings by handing them to a freelance security officer. He withdrew one million roubles, grew suspicious and went to the police.

Arrest. Under police supervision he handed a courier a dummy package of money; officers then detained the courier, a 79-year-old woman from St Petersburg who had flown in on her handlers' instructions. A criminal case for attempted large-scale fraud was opened and she was remanded in custody.

Limits. The deepfake description is the police's; the release does not say how it was established, and it describes the on-screen person only as resembling the governor. Vesti.ru's report attributes the deepfake to the pensioner's own account. No money was lost according to the release, and the dates of the call and the arrest are not given.

Reported harm

According to the Primorye police, a pensioner deceived by a video call with a deepfake of the governor was pressed by daily calls for a month to hand over his savings and withdrew one million roubles before going to the police; no money was lost.

Outcome

Ongoing

Police arrested a 79-year-old woman from St Petersburg who came to collect the money and was handed a dummy package; an investigator opened a criminal case under part 3 of article 30 and part 4 of article 159 of the Russian Criminal Code (attempted fraud on an especially large scale), and she was remanded in custody. The investigation is continuing.

What remains unknown

  • How the police established that the video was a deepfake, and which tool made it.
  • Whether the police examined any recording of the video call: the release body describes only a person who resembled the governor, and Vesti.ru, relaying the police channel, gives the deepfake as the pensioner's own account.
  • The dates of the first call, the month of calls and the arrest.
  • Whether the one million roubles the pensioner withdrew were all recovered; the release reports only that he handed over a dummy package.

What the evidence supports

AI involvement: reported. The investigating police directorate's press service states that the fraudsters used deepfake technology and that the pensioner saw, in the video conference, a person resembling the regional governor who set the fraud in motion (depicted_or_impersonated: the generated likeness impersonated the governor toward him). The release gives no technical basis for the deepfake attribution and names no tool.

3 claims: 3 reported. What the statuses mean

Reported The Primorsky Krai police press service said that fraudsters used deepfake technology in an online fraud in which a 77-year-old resident saw, in a video conference, a person resembling the region's governor who told him of a cyberattack and stolen funds routed through his account.

Causal attribution. The police release attributes the deepfake; its technical basis is not stated. Vesti.ru attributes the same description to the pensioner's words, so both rest on one police account.

  • mvdmedia.ru(opens in new tab) supports · Russian
    В Приморском крае полиция пресекла онлайн-аферу с использованием мошенниками технологии дипфейк; Перейдя по ней, заявитель увидел на экране собеседника, который был похож на губернатора региона.
  • vesti.ru(opens in new tab) supports · Russian
    злоумышленники, используя дипфейк, организовали видеозвонок "губернатором" региона.
Reported Accomplices posing as law-enforcement officials called him daily for a month, urging him to hand over all his savings, and he withdrew one million roubles before becoming suspicious and going to the police.

Causal attribution. Police account of the complaint.

  • mvdmedia.ru(opens in new tab) supports · Russian
    На протяжении месяца зарубежные аферисты ежедневно звонили приморцу.; Пожилой человек снял один миллион рублей, но заподозрил неладное и обратился за помощью в полицию.
Reported Under police supervision he handed a courier a dummy package; police detained the courier, a 79-year-old woman from St Petersburg, opened a criminal case for attempted large-scale fraud, and she was remanded in custody.

Causal attribution. Police account.

  • mvdmedia.ru(opens in new tab) supports · Russian
    заявитель вручил прибывшему курьеру муляж денежных средств.; Ею оказалась 79-летняя жительница Санкт-Петербурга; возбуждено уголовное дело по признакам преступления, предусмотренного ч. 3 ст. 30, ч. 4 ст. 159 Уголовного кодекса Российской Федерации.

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 Russian by the research agent (an AI) on 2026-10-22 (HTTP 200); quotations are Russian originals, and English renderings in the record are the research agent's translations. The release is credited to the press service of the Primorsky Krai police directorate. Applies to s1.

Read in Russian by the research agent (an AI) on 2026-10-22 (HTTP 200); quotations are Russian originals, and English renderings in the record are the research agent's translations. The report follows the police account of the pensioner's complaint, so it shares the release's independence group. Applies to s2.

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

The police release places the complainant in the Khorolsky district of Primorsky Krai, Russia, where he reported the fraud and where the courier was arrested.

Reviewed for publication 2026-10-22: Published because the investigating police directorate's press service attributes the fraud to deepfake technology, describing a video call with a person resembling the regional governor that drew a 77-year-old into a month of daily pressure to hand over his savings. The technical basis of the police attribution is undisclosed.

People described

A 77-year-old pensioner in the Khorolsky district of Primorsky Krai who was deceived by the call and later calls; he is a private person and is not named

People reported harmed in this case

1 person

0 AI participants · 1 other person harmed

One person: the 77-year-old pensioner the police release describes. The governor whose likeness was used is not counted because no response from him is reported. The arrested courier is not counted.

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

Tags

#deepfake#video-call-fraud#official-impersonation#russia#primorsky-krai#police-release

Cite this case

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

APA

NOPE. (2026). Primorye police say fraudsters used a deepfake of the regional governor in a video call to draw a pensioner into a month-long scam. AI incidents. https://nope.net/incidents/2026-primorye-police-say-fraudsters-used-deepfake-of-regional-governor-in-video-call-to-draw-pensioner-into-month-long-scam

BibTeX

@misc{2026_primorye_police_say_fraudsters_used_deepfake_of_regional_governor_in_video_call_to_draw_pensioner_into_month_long_scam,
  title = {Primorye police say fraudsters used a deepfake of the regional governor in a video call to draw a pensioner into a month-long scam},
  author = {NOPE},
  year = {2026},
  howpublished = {AI incidents},
  url = {https://nope.net/incidents/2026-primorye-police-say-fraudsters-used-deepfake-of-regional-governor-in-video-call-to-draw-pensioner-into-month-long-scam}
}

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