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Low reported severity Media Coverage

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.

AI system
Unidentified voice-cloning tool
Occurred
Sept 2026
Reported
30 September 2026
Event location
Unknown
What the AI did
Depicted or impersonated the person
Reported harm
Reputational Harm
Whose AI use
Someone else’s AI use
Setting
Finance · Everyday life
Evidence
AI involvement reported · Causal attribution supported · 4 sources, 1 underlying account
3 claims: 3 reported. 5 open questions
People reported harmed
1 person

AI system as recorded: Fake videos using the singer's voice cloned with AI ('con mi voz, con IA', in his words) and, per El Diario de Sonora, his image, circulated on social networks to solicit money for his mother's funeral; the tool and operators are not identified

What Happened

Sarmiento announced his mother's death on social media with a farewell message (La Razón; Récord). Récord reports that hours after announcing the death he turned to social media again to warn followers of an alleged fraud: according to him, people were using artificial intelligence to clone his voice and request money supposedly for her funeral expenses. La Razón reports that he warned relatives, fans and acquaintances that a video made with artificial intelligence was circulating on social networks in which he asks for financial help for the funeral, and quotes his Instagram video: 'No debería hacer este video, pero la gente se aprovecha de situaciones vulnerables. No se vale que haya gente tan ruin que ande pidiendo dinero con mi voz, con IA, para el sepelio de mi madre. Ahorita me avisaron.' He added: 'No se dejen engañar, yo no ando pidiendo dinero.' La Mejor writes that he said people were cloning his voice with AI to solicit deposits in his name. El Diario de Sonora adds that the fake videos used his image as well as a cloned voice. The cause of his mother's death has not been made public (Récord) and is not connected to AI by any source. None of the outlets says how many people received the request or whether anyone sent money.

Reported harm

During his bereavement, fake videos used his AI-cloned voice to ask his followers for funeral money in his name, and he had to post a public warning that he was not asking for money (his Instagram video, relayed by La Razón, Récord, La Mejor and El Diario de Sonora).

Outcome

Unknown

He posted a warning video on his official Instagram account; entertainment outlets relayed it on 30 September 2026 (La Razón, Récord, La Mejor, El Diario de Sonora). No police complaint, platform takedown, payment by followers or identified perpetrator is reported.

What remains unknown

  • Whether anyone sent money, and how much.
  • On which platforms the fake videos circulated and how many people received them.
  • Whether a police complaint or takedown request was made.
  • Which tool was used.
  • Whether the requests were videos, audio messages or both: La Razón and El Diario de Sonora say videos, Récord says messages or audios, and his quoted words mention only his voice.

What the evidence supports

AI involvement: reported. Sarmiento says in his Instagram video that people are asking for money 'con mi voz, con IA' (La Razón; La Mejor); the outlets describe a video made with AI (La Razón) and a voice cloned with AI (Récord; La Mejor; El Diario de Sonora). The fake videos were not inspected and no tool is named. The cloned voice impersonated him (depicted_or_impersonated).

3 claims: 3 reported. What the statuses mean

Reported Sarmiento said in a video on his Instagram account that people were asking for money for his mother's funeral using his voice made with AI, and that he was not asking anyone for money.

Causal attribution. His own account, relayed by all four outlets from one video; the fake videos were not inspected.

  • razon.com.mx(opens in new tab) supports · Spanish
    'No se vale que haya gente tan ruin que ande pidiendo dinero con mi voz, con IA, para el sepelio de mi madre. Ahorita me avisaron'
  • razon.com.mx(opens in new tab) supports · Spanish
    'No se dejen engañar, yo no ando pidiendo dinero'
  • lamejor.com.mx(opens in new tab) supports · Spanish
    'El intérprete denunció públicamente que personas malintencionadas están clonando su voz mediante Inteligencia Artificial (IA) para solicitar depósitos económicos a su nombre'
Reported The warning came hours after he announced his mother's death on social media.

Causal attribution. Timing as reported by Récord; the death is not connected to AI by any source.

  • record.com.mx(opens in new tab) supports · Spanish
    'Horas después de informar sobre la muerte de su madre, el cantante recurrió nuevamente a sus redes sociales para advertir a sus seguidores sobre un presunto intento de fraude.'
Reported According to El Diario de Sonora, the fake videos used his image as well as a voice cloned with AI.

Causal attribution. One outlet's paraphrase of his video; his quoted words mention only his voice.

  • eldiariodesonora.com.mx(opens in new tab) supports · Spanish
    'están circulando videos falsos en los que se utiliza su imagen e incluso una voz clonada mediante inteligencia artificial (deepfake), en los que supuestamente él pide dinero para cubrir los gastos del sepelio de su mamá'

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 live in Spanish on 2026-10-01 (La Razón, 30 September 2026). Quotes his Instagram video. Researcher translation. Applies to s1.

Read live in Spanish on 2026-10-01 (Récord, 30 September 2026); relays the same Instagram video. Researcher translation. Applies to s2.

Read live in Spanish on 2026-10-01 (La Mejor, 30 September 2026); quotes the same video. Researcher translation. Applies to s3.

Read live in Spanish on 2026-10-01 (El Diario de Sonora, 30 September 2026); paraphrases the same video. Researcher translation. Applies to s4.

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

The inspected bodies say the videos circulated on social networks and place him in the regional Mexican music scene; Récord calls him 'cantante sinaloense', an origin descriptor. None states where he lives or where the requests were received, so no country is inferred from origin, the genre, the outlets or the language.

Reviewed for publication 2026-10-01: Published under the 2026-09-15 charter as a core case: an AI-cloned voice impersonated the singer to solicit funeral money in his name, and he describes it in his own public video. He is a public figure and is named as all sources do; his mother is not named. One underlying account (his video) relayed by four outlets.

People described

Samuel Sarmiento, singer and former lead vocalist of Banda Los Recoditos (public figure speaking publicly about his own case)

People reported harmed in this case

1 person

0 AI participants · 1 other person harmed

One person, Samuel Sarmiento (La Razón; Récord; La Mejor; El Diario de Sonora). Followers who received the request are not counted because no source reports anyone deceived. Exact 1.

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

Tags

#deepfakes#voice-cloning#impersonation-scam#celebrity-deepfake#bereavement#musician#spanish-language

Cite this case

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

APA

NOPE. (2026). 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. AI incidents. https://nope.net/incidents/2026-singer-samuel-sarmiento-ai-cloned-voice-used-to-ask-for-funeral-money

BibTeX

@misc{2026_singer_samuel_sarmiento_ai_cloned_voice_used_to_ask_for_funeral_money,
  title = {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},
  author = {NOPE},
  year = {2026},
  howpublished = {AI incidents},
  url = {https://nope.net/incidents/2026-singer-samuel-sarmiento-ai-cloned-voice-used-to-ask-for-funeral-money}
}

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