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Low reported severity Investigation Opened

Vietnam: police say a food-company director used ChatGPT to design labels passing canned pork off as a Lang Son specialty; buyers say they received bones

Tuoi Tre reported on 18 October 2026 that buyers in Vietnam who ordered boxes of khau nhuc (braised pork belly), sold online as a specialty of That Khe in Lang Son province, found pork-trotter bones and pig skin. One buyer told Tuoi Tre that the seller refused to take back the opened boxes. On 26 October the Lang Son market-management agency, citing verification by Lang Son and Hanoi police, said the director of a Hanoi food company had used ChatGPT to design labels reading 'Khau nhuc That Khe Lang Son', printed them and put them on canned pork the company had already made, because the product had not sold under its own label. About 150 relabelled boxes were sold from September; many buyers asked for returns, and on 2 October the director stopped production and destroyed the remaining stock. Hanoi police opened a case file. The director is not named here.

AI system
ChatGPT (reported)
Occurred
Sept 2026 to Oct 2026
Reported
18 October 2026
Event location
Vietnam
What the AI did
Communicated with the person
Reported harm
Financial Loss
Whose AI use
Someone else’s AI use
Setting
Everyday life · Finance
Evidence
AI involvement reported · Causal attribution alleged · 3 sources, 2 underlying accounts
4 claims: 4 reported. 4 open questions
People reported harmed
Not reliably quantifiable from the sources

AI system as recorded: ChatGPT, which according to police verification relayed by the Lang Son market-management agency the director used to design the product labels

What Happened

What buyers received. Tuoi Tre reported on 18 October 2026 that people who ordered khau nhuc, a braised pork-belly dish associated with That Khe in Lang Son province, through social media opened the boxes to find pork-trotter bones and pig skin. A buyer from Hung Yen province told the newspaper he had ordered a set of four boxes from a Facebook page that presented the dish as a That Khe specialty; one box held two trotter bones and a piece of pig skin, the box carried no production date, expiry date or producer address, and the seller told him opened boxes could not be returned. Tuoi Tre says many other buyers of the same supplier received bones, and that the supplier's Facebook pages were closed after complaints spread.

What the authorities found. On 26 October the Lang Son market-management agency reported its verification, which Tuoi Tre and Thanh Nien relay. Citing Lang Son police, it said the director of a Hanoi food company had staff can pork trotters under a Sichuan-style label. When that product did not sell, the director used ChatGPT to design labels reading 'Khau nhuc That Khe Lang Son', printed them and swapped them onto boxes already produced. About 150 relabelled boxes were sold; many buyers asked to return them, and on 2 October the director stopped production and destroyed the remaining stock. Thanh Nien reports that the police established the company made 500 such boxes in September 2026. The agency said no facility in Lang Son makes the boxed product sold under that name, and that the shipments came from Hanoi. Hanoi police opened a case file.

What is not known. The inspected sources do not say what ChatGPT was asked to produce or which wording on the label it generated, and they do not quote the director. They give no count of harmed buyers, the prices paid or whether any buyer was refunded. Whether the Hung Yen buyer's box carried the ChatGPT-designed label is not stated in a body, although the authorities link the roughly 150 sales to the relabelled boxes.

Reported harm

According to the authorities and a buyer interviewed by Tuoi Tre, buyers paid for boxes sold as a Lang Son specialty under labels designed with ChatGPT and received pork-trotter bones and skin; about 150 boxes were sold, many buyers sought returns, and one buyer was refused a return.

How Harm Occurred

According to the authorities' account, labels designed with ChatGPT presented a Hanoi company's canned pork as a That Khe (Lang Son) specialty; buyers who relied on that presentation paid for the product and received boxes of bones and skin.

Outcome

Ongoing

Hanoi police opened a case file to clarify the violations (Tuoi Tre and Thanh Nien, 26 October 2026). The Lang Son market-management agency and the cybersecurity division of Lang Son police verified the selling accounts. No charge or penalty is reported as of 26 October 2026.

What remains unknown

  • What the director asked ChatGPT to produce and which label wording it generated.
  • How many buyers were harmed, the prices they paid and whether any were refunded.
  • Whether the interviewed buyer's box carried the ChatGPT-designed label.
  • The outcome of the Hanoi police case file.

What the evidence supports

AI involvement: reported. The Lang Son market-management agency, citing verification by Lang Son police and as relayed by Tuoi Tre and Thanh Nien, says the director used ChatGPT to design the labels reading 'Khau nhuc That Khe Lang Son' that were printed and put on the company's canned pork. Those labels presented the product to buyers as a That Khe (Lang Son) specialty, and the authorities link about 150 sales and many return requests to the relabelled boxes. Police found that after the relabelling the company received orders for about 150 boxes (Thanh Nien), so the AI-designed label is product information presented to the buyers (communicated_with); the sources do not say whether each buyer saw the label before ordering. The sources do not say what ChatGPT was asked to produce or which label text it generated, and the director is not quoted.

4 claims: 4 reported. What the statuses mean

Reported Buyers who ordered khau nhuc sold online as a That Khe (Lang Son) specialty received boxes containing pork-trotter bones and pig skin; a buyer who ordered four boxes found two trotter bones and a piece of skin, and the seller told him opened boxes could not be returned.

Causal attribution. Buyer account and the newspaper's own reporting in one outlet.

  • tuoitre.vn(opens in new tab) supports · Vietnamese
    'Hộp in nhãn mác khâu nhục nhưng bên trong là… xương chân giò và bì lợn.' 'lại là 2 cục xương chân giò và miếng bì lợn ngâm trong thứ nước nhờ nhờ' 'nhà cung cấp nhắn mở hộp rồi không được trả lại' 'hàng loạt khách hàng đặt món đặc sản khâu nhục Lạng Sơn trên mạng'
Reported According to police verification relayed by the Lang Son market-management agency, the director of a Hanoi food company used ChatGPT to design labels reading 'Khau nhuc That Khe Lang Son', printed them and put them on canned pork the company had already produced.

Causal attribution. The authorities' account relayed by two outlets from one official report; the director is not quoted.

  • tuoitre.vn(opens in new tab) supports · Vietnamese
    'một giám đốc đã dùng ChatGPT thiết kế nhãn mác, dán lên sản phẩm tự chế biến rồi bán ra thị trường qua Facebook.' 'dùng ChatGPT để thiết kế nhãn, mác "Khâu nhục Thất Khê Lạng Sơn" và đặt nhãn mác trên mạng, rồi thay chúng vào các sản phẩm trước đó.'
  • thanhnien.vn(opens in new tab) supports · Vietnamese
    'đã dùng ChatGPT để thiết kế nhãn, mác sản phẩm "Khâu nhục Thất Khê Lạng Sơn", in ra rồi thay nhãn mác vào các sản phẩm đã sản xuất trước đó.'
Reported The authorities say about 150 relabelled boxes were sold, many buyers asked to return them, the director stopped production and destroyed the remaining stock on 2 October 2026, and Hanoi police opened a case file.

Causal attribution. The authorities' account relayed by two outlets from one official report.

  • tuoitre.vn(opens in new tab) supports · Vietnamese
    'Sơ bộ, khoảng 150 sản phẩm được bán khi đổi thành nhãn mác "Khâu nhục Thất Khê Lạng Sơn". Khi nhận hàng, nhiều khách đòi trả lại' 'Hiện Công an TP Hà Nội đã lập hồ sơ vụ việc để tiếp tục làm rõ hành vi vi phạm.'
  • thanhnien.vn(opens in new tab) supports · Vietnamese
    'đã nhận được nhiều đơn hàng với tổng cộng 150 sản phẩm.' 'rất nhiều khách phản hồi không tốt và trả lại.' 'Công an TP.Hà Nội đã lập hồ sơ vụ việc để tiếp tục làm rõ vi phạm của những người liên quan.'
Reported The Lang Son market-management agency says no facility in Lang Son produces the boxed product sold under that name and that the reported shipments came from Hanoi.

Causal attribution. Regulator's finding relayed by two outlets.

  • tuoitre.vn(opens in new tab) supports · Vietnamese
    'khẳng định Lạng Sơn không có cơ sở sản xuất, chế biến, kinh doanh khâu nhục đóng hộp mang tên "Bát Khâu Nhục Lạng Sơn" như mạng xã hội đã thông tin thời gian qua.'
  • thanhnien.vn(opens in new tab) supports · Vietnamese
    'có hành trình gửi hàng từ khu vực Hà Nội, không phải từ Lạng Sơn.'

Sources

3 sources inspected, from 2 underlying accounts. Sources that repeat one account do not corroborate each other.

How the sources were read, and where the events happened

Read in Vietnamese by the research agent (an AI) on 2026-10-27 and translated by the research agent (an AI) into English; no human translator or reviewer was involved. Tuoi Tre relays the Lang Son market-management agency report, which cites Lang Son police. Applies to s1.

Read in Vietnamese by the research agent (an AI) on 2026-10-27 and translated by the research agent (an AI) into English; no human translator or reviewer was involved. Thanh Nien relays the same market-management and police findings. Applies to s2.

Read in Vietnamese by the research agent (an AI) on 2026-10-27 and translated by the research agent (an AI) into English; no human translator or reviewer was involved. Tuoi Tre report based on interviews with a buyer, a former employee and local officials. Applies to s3.

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

The authorities say the company and its workshop are in Hanoi and the boxes were sold online and shipped from Hanoi; Lang Son and Hanoi police investigated, so the event country is Vietnam. One buyer lives in Hung Yen province, but the countries of the other buyers are not stated, so affected-person countries are left empty.

Reviewed for publication 2026-10-27: Published as a core case (communicated_with): the Lang Son market-management agency, citing police verification, says a food-company director used ChatGPT to design labels that presented the company's canned pork as a That Khe (Lang Son) specialty; about 150 relabelled boxes were sold, many buyers asked for returns, and a buyer describes receiving bones and being refused a return. The claims are the authorities' and a buyer's as reported; no person is named.

People described

Buyers in Vietnam who ordered the boxes online, including a man from Hung Yen province who bought four boxes; no buyer is named here

People reported harmed in this case

Not reliably quantifiable from the sources

The authorities say about 150 relabelled boxes were sold and many buyers asked to return them, and one buyer is described individually. Boxes sold are not people, and no count of harmed buyers is given, so the count is unquantified.

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

Tags

#chatgpt#ai-designed-label#food-mislabelling#online-sales#consumer-complaint#police-investigation#vietnam

Cite this case

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

APA

NOPE. (2026). Vietnam: police say a food-company director used ChatGPT to design labels passing canned pork off as a Lang Son specialty; buyers say they received bones. AI incidents. https://nope.net/incidents/2026-vietnam-police-say-food-company-director-used-chatgpt-to-design-fake-lang-son-specialty-labels-buyers-received-bones

BibTeX

@misc{2026_vietnam_police_say_food_company_director_used_chatgpt_to_design_fake_lang_son_specialty_labels_buyers_received_bones,
  title = {Vietnam: police say a food-company director used ChatGPT to design labels passing canned pork off as a Lang Son specialty; buyers say they received bones},
  author = {NOPE},
  year = {2026},
  howpublished = {AI incidents},
  url = {https://nope.net/incidents/2026-vietnam-police-say-food-company-director-used-chatgpt-to-design-fake-lang-son-specialty-labels-buyers-received-bones}
}

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