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NOPE
Medium reported severity Media Coverage

Victoria, Australia: police warned, in reports published on 1 October 2026 local time, that scammers using AI to clone the voices of doctors have called Mandarin speakers and made them buy gift cards, with ten reports in September and two victims losing $50,000 and $40,000

Victoria Police warned, in reports published on 1 October 2026 local time, that fraudsters targeting the state's Mandarin-speaking community are using artificial intelligence to clone the voices of doctors, general practitioners and surgeons, calling victims by their real names and telling them to buy gift cards and text the codes (ABC News, Yahoo News Australia). Police received ten reports in September. In one case, NewsWire reports, the scammer copied the voice of a medical professional the victim knew, and the victim bought $50,000 in gift cards over three days before calling the real practice. In another, a caller posing as a medical professional exploited the victim's urgent health conditions and pressured them until their cash was depleted, a loss of $40,000; police do not say whether that call used a cloned voice. No victim is identified.

AI system
Unidentified voice-cloning tool
Occurred
Event date unknown
Reported
1 October 2026
Event location
Australia
What the AI did
Communicated with the person
Reported harm
Financial Loss
Whose AI use
Someone else’s AI use
Setting
Health · Finance
Evidence
AI involvement reported · Causal attribution alleged · 3 sources, 1 underlying account
3 claims: 3 reported. 6 open questions
People reported harmed
At least 2 people

AI system as recorded: AI voice cloning used by scammers to imitate the voices of doctors, general practitioners and surgeons in phone calls (Victoria Police, as reported); no tool is named

What Happened

ABC News and Yahoo News Australia (NewsWire), both published on 30 September 2026 UTC, report a Victoria Police warning to the state's Mandarin-speaking community. According to police, scammers use artificial intelligence to clone the voices of doctors, general practitioners and surgeons. The caller uses the victim's real name and tells them to buy gift cards and send the codes by text message. Police received ten reports in September.

Police described two cases. In one, the scammer copied the voice of a medical professional known to the victim, who bought $50,000 in gift cards over three days, apparently as business gifts, before becoming suspicious, calling the medical professional's real number and realising it was a scam. In the other, a scammer posing as a medical professional exploited the victim's urgent health conditions and had them buy gift cards, scratch off the codes and message photos of them; the victim was repeatedly pressured until their cash flow was entirely depleted, a loss of $40,000. Police do not say whether that call used a cloned voice.

Detective Acting Inspector Eleanor Vallas of the Cybercrime Squad told people not to buy gift cards at a caller's request, and police advised anyone called from an unfamiliar number to hang up and call the practice on its official number.

Reported harm

Two victims described by Victoria Police lost $50,000 and $40,000 in gift cards after calls from scammers posing as doctors; police say the scammers clone doctors' voices with AI, and in the $50,000 case copied the voice of a medical professional the victim knew.

Outcome

Unknown

Victoria Police Cybercrime Squad issued a public warning, reported on 1 October 2026 Australian time, and asked victims to report, keep call records and screenshots; no arrests are reported.

What remains unknown

  • Which AI tool was used and how the voices were obtained.
  • How many of the ten reports involved a financial loss, and the total loss.
  • Whether a cloned voice was used in the $40,000 case.
  • The victims' ages and locations within Victoria, and the dates of the calls.
  • Whether the professional imitated in the $50,000 case was a medical professional: NewsWire says a medical professional and ABC says the victim called their health provider, while Inside State Government's account of the police statement says 'a professional known to them'.
  • How many of the ten reports involved a cloned voice.

What the evidence supports

AI involvement: reported. Victoria Police, as reported by ABC News and Yahoo News Australia (NewsWire), say the scammers use artificial intelligence to clone the voices of doctors, general practitioners and surgeons; in the $50,000 case the scammer copied the voice of a medical professional known to the victim. Police do not say whether a cloned voice was used in the $40,000 case, and no tool is named. Inside State Government's account of the police statement says AI voice cloning 'has been featured in several reports to police' and describes the $50,000 case as the scammer having 'mimicked the voice of a professional known to them'.

3 claims: 3 reported. What the statuses mean

Reported Victoria Police say scammers targeting Mandarin speakers are using artificial intelligence to clone the voices of doctors, general practitioners and surgeons, using victims' real names and telling them to buy gift cards and send the codes by text message; police received ten reports in September 2026.

Causal attribution. Victoria Police warning carried by ABC and NewsWire (one chain).

  • abc.net.au(opens in new tab) supports · English
    'Scammers are using artificial intelligence to clone the voicers of doctors, general practitioners and surgeons.'; 'Ten reports of the scam were received last month'
  • au.news.yahoo.com(opens in new tab) supports · English
    'Police have received 10 reports since early September, with victims losing tens of thousands of dollars.'; 'The warning says the caller uses the victim's real name, then tells them to buy gift cards and hand over the gift card codes by text message.'; 'The scammers are using AI voice cloning and targeting Mandarin speakers across Victoria.'
Reported In one case the scammer copied the voice of a medical professional known to the victim, who bought $50,000 in gift cards over three days before becoming suspicious and calling the medical professional's real number.

Causal attribution. Police account (one chain); the voice-copy detail is in the NewsWire copy only.

  • au.news.yahoo.com(opens in new tab) supports · English
    'In one case, the scammer copied the voice of a medical professional known to the victim.'; 'The victim bought $50,000 in gift cards over three days, apparently as business gifts, until they became suspicious, called the medical professional's real number, and realised it was a scam.'
  • abc.net.au(opens in new tab) supports · English
    'one victim who lost $50,000 to the scam after buying gift cards across a three-day period before they became suspicious.'
  • insidestategovernment.com.au(opens in new tab) supports · English
    'In one of the reports the scammer called a victim and mimicked the voice of a professional known to them.'; 'The victim purchased $50,000 in gift cards across a three-day period before becoming suspicious.'
Reported In another case a scammer posing as a medical professional exploited the victim's urgent health conditions and repeatedly pressured them to buy gift cards until their cash flow was depleted, for a loss of $40,000.

Causal attribution. Police account (one chain); police do not say whether a cloned voice was used in this case.

  • au.news.yahoo.com(opens in new tab) supports · English
    'The other report saw the scammer pose as a medical professional and call the victim to exploit their urgent health conditions,'; 'The victim was repeatedly pressured into buying more cards until their cash flow was entirely depleted, resulting in a financial loss of $40,000.'
  • abc.net.au(opens in new tab) supports · English
    'Police say another victim lost $40,000 after a scammer pretended to be a medical professional who exploited their urgent health conditions.'

Sources

3 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 on 2026-10-01 from the live ABC News page (published 30 September 2026 UTC, dated 1 October locally); reports the Victoria Police warning and quotes the Cybercrime Squad. Applies to s1.

Read on 2026-10-01 from the live Yahoo News Australia page (NewsWire copy, 30 September 2026 UTC); quotes the Victoria Police warning at greater length. Applies to s2.

Read on 2026-10-01 from the live page (Inside State Government, 1 October 2026); reproduces the Victoria Police statement at greater length. Applies to s3.

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

Victoria Police say the calls have been reported across Victoria and are warning the Mandarin-speaking community in Victoria (ABC, Yahoo News Australia).

Reviewed for publication 2026-10-01: Published as a core case (communicated_with): Victoria Police report a series of scam calls in which AI-cloned voices of doctors were used to make Mandarin-speaking victims buy gift cards, with two described victims losing $50,000 and $40,000. The AI element is the police account; no victim is identified.

People described

Mandarin-speaking people in Victoria who received the calls; two victims described by police lost $50,000 and $40,000 (not identified)

People reported harmed in this case

At least 2 people

0 AI participants · 2 other people harmed

Police describe two victims with losses ($50,000 and $40,000). Ten reports were received, but police do not say how many involved a loss. Documented minimum 2. Police do not say whether a cloned voice was used in the $40,000 case; both victims are counted as harmed within the reported scam series.

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

Tags

#voice-cloning#impersonation-scam#gift-card-scam#mandarin-speakers#victoria#australia

Cite this case

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

APA

NOPE. (2026). Victoria, Australia: police warned, in reports published on 1 October 2026 local time, that scammers using AI to clone the voices of doctors have called Mandarin speakers and made them buy gift cards, with ten reports in September and two victims losing $50,000 and $40,000. AI incidents. https://nope.net/incidents/2026-victoria-australia-ai-cloned-doctor-voice-gift-card-scam-mandarin-speakers

BibTeX

@misc{2026_victoria_australia_ai_cloned_doctor_voice_gift_card_scam_mandarin_speakers,
  title = {Victoria, Australia: police warned, in reports published on 1 October 2026 local time, that scammers using AI to clone the voices of doctors have called Mandarin speakers and made them buy gift cards, with ten reports in September and two victims losing \$50,000 and \$40,000},
  author = {NOPE},
  year = {2026},
  howpublished = {AI incidents},
  url = {https://nope.net/incidents/2026-victoria-australia-ai-cloned-doctor-voice-gift-card-scam-mandarin-speakers}
}

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