{"meta":{"exportedAt":"2026-11-14T10:40:12.568Z","formatVersion":2,"selection":{"q":"germany","system":"","harm":"","context":"","country":"","role":"","relation":"","evidence":"","year":"2024","response":"","severity":"","verification":"","view":"incidents","sort":"added"},"totalIncidents":2,"coverage":{"cases":2,"countries":1,"languages":2,"unknownLocation":0,"locationPending":0,"unknownLanguage":0,"unknownDate":0,"lawsuits":0,"regulatory":0,"minors":0,"coreRelations":1,"contextualRelations":1,"mixedRelations":0,"unknownRelations":0,"relationPending":0,"relationUnknown":0},"countingNote":"Distinct public cases in this selection. People counts apply within individual cases only; cross-case person overlap has not been resolved. No population incidence estimate.","affectedCountNote":"Interpret person counts with affectedCountStatus and the reported effects. Unquantified zeros are placeholders, not a measured zero.","source":"AI incidents","publisher":"NOPE","url":"https://nope.net/incidents","license":"CC BY 4.0"},"incidents":[{"id":"2024-germany-microsoft-copilot-falsely-described-court-reporter-as-criminal-and-disclosed-his-address","caseFacts":{"claims":[{"id":"c1","status":"reported","evidence":[{"locator":"'ein Ausbrecher aus der Psychiatrie und ein Witwenbetrüger. All das waren Angeklagte in Verfahren, über die'; 'als Journalist berichtet hat.'; 'wurde in einem Missbrauchs-Fall gegen Kinder und Schutzbefohlene angeklagt.'","relation":"supports","source_id":"s1"},{"locator":"'eine erschreckende Biografie über seine \"kriminelle Vergangenheit\" erhalten.'; 'Im Rahmen seiner journalistischen Tätigkeit als Gerichtsreporter hat er aber über diese Fälle berichtet.'","relation":"supports","source_id":"s2"},{"locator":"'AI chatbot had blamed him for crimes he had covered.'","relation":"supports","source_id":"s3"}],"assertion":"Asked about a court reporter, Copilot described him as a man charged in a child abuse case, an escapee from psychiatry and a fraudster who cheated widows; all were defendants in proceedings he had reported on.","causal_attribution":"The reporter's account (to SWR, relayed by heise and ComputerBild, and to The Register); one witness, so reported."},{"id":"c2","status":"reported","evidence":[{"locator":"'Der Copilot liefert dann auch noch die volle Adresse des betroffenen Journalisten, samt Telefonnummer und auf Wunsch einer Routenplanung.'","relation":"supports","source_id":"s1"},{"locator":"'verrät auch die private Telefonnummer des Journalisten, die volle Wohnadresse und bietet obendrein eine Routenplanung dorthin an.'","relation":"supports","source_id":"s2"}],"assertion":"Copilot also gave his private phone number and full home address and offered a route there.","causal_attribution":"SWR as relayed by heise and ComputerBild (one chain); not in The Register."},{"id":"c3","status":"reported","evidence":[{"locator":"'Strafanzeige gestellt, ist damit aber abgeblitzt'; 'weil es keine reale Person gibt, die als Urheber zu betrachten ist.'","relation":"supports","source_id":"s1"},{"locator":"'had rejected criminal charges in two instances, and data protection officers could only achieve short-term success.'","relation":"supports","source_id":"s3"}],"assertion":"His criminal complaint was rejected (in two instances, he said) because no real person could be regarded as the author of the claims.","causal_attribution":"The reporter's account; the prosecutors' decisions were not inspected."},{"id":"c4","status":"reported","evidence":[{"locator":"'Als sich der zuständige Datenschutzbeauftragte vom Bayerischen Landesamt an Microsoft wendete, konnten die Beschuldigungen zunächst nicht mehr abgerufen werden. Einige Tage später antwortete der KI-Chatbot wohl aber wieder mit denselben falschen Behauptungen.'","relation":"supports","source_id":"s1"},{"locator":"'his lawyer has sent a cease-and-desist demand to Microsoft.'","relation":"supports","source_id":"s3"}],"assertion":"After the Bavarian data-protection authority contacted Microsoft the accusations were briefly unavailable, but a few days later the chatbot again gave the same false claims; his lawyer sent Microsoft a cease-and-desist demand.","causal_attribution":"SWR as relayed by heise (with its hedge wohl), and the reporter to The Register."},{"id":"c5","status":"reported","evidence":[{"locator":"'seeing his name associated with various crimes has been traumatizing'","relation":"supports","source_id":"s3"}],"assertion":"He said seeing his name associated with the crimes was traumatising.","causal_attribution":"The reporter's own account to The Register."},{"id":"c6","status":"reported","evidence":[{"locator":"'We investigated this report and have taken appropriate and immediate action to address it.'","relation":"supports","source_id":"s3"},{"locator":"'Aktuell sind die falschen Zuschreibungen nicht mehr abzurufen.'","relation":"supports","source_id":"s1"}],"assertion":"Microsoft said it had investigated the report and taken appropriate and immediate action; by late August 2024 the false answers were no longer returned.","causal_attribution":"Microsoft's statement to The Register; heise's own check at publication. Recorded as counterevidence and context."},{"id":"c7","status":"reported","evidence":[{"locator":"'Fast genau ein Jahr ist es jetzt her, dass der Journalist entdeckt hat, dass die Künstliche Intelligenz Copilot von Microsoft'","relation":"supports","source_id":"s4"}],"assertion":"He discovered the answers about a year before May 2025.","causal_attribution":"Pforzheimer Zeitung opening paragraph; basis for the 2024 event year."}],"effects":[{"label":"falsely described as a convicted child abuser and fraudster, with his contact details disclosed; said it was traumatising","claim_id":"c1","direction":"negative"}],"sources":[{"id":"s1","url":"https://www.heise.de/news/Copilot-macht-aus-einem-Gerichtsreporter-einen-Kinderschaender-9840437.html","kind":"news_report","access":"read","language":"de","translation_note":"Read in German by the research agent (an AI) on 2026-10-25 and translated by the research agent (an AI) into English; no human translator or reviewer was involved. heise online, 20 August 2024; HTTP 200, full text read. Relays the reporter's account to SWR; the SWR report itself was not fetched. The body names the reporter; this record does not.","independence_group":"swr-report-copilot-court-reporter-aug-2024"},{"id":"s2","url":"https://www.computerbild.de/artikel/cb-News-Internet-Microsoft-Copilot-macht-aus-einem-Journalisten-einen-verurteilten-Verbrecher-38844419.html","kind":"news_report","access":"read","language":"de","translation_note":"Read in German by the research agent (an AI) on 2026-10-25 and translated by the research agent (an AI) into English; no human translator or reviewer was involved. COMPUTER BILD, 20 August 2024; HTTP 200, full text read. Relays the SWR report; same origin as s1. Names the reporter.","independence_group":"swr-report-copilot-court-reporter-aug-2024"},{"id":"s3","url":"https://www.theregister.com/2024/08/26/microsoft_bing_copilot_ai_halluciation/","kind":"news_report","access":"read","language":"en","translation_note":"Read in English by the research agent (an AI) on 2026-10-25; no translation needed. The Register, 26 August 2024; HTTP 200, full text read. Adds the reporter's own email to The Register (the same witness as the SWR account) and a Microsoft spokesperson's statement. Names the reporter.","independence_group":"theregister-email-interview-aug-2024"},{"id":"s4","url":"https://www.pz-news.de/region_artikel,-KI-macht-PZ-Reporter-zu-einem-Verbrecher-Wer-traegt-dafuer-die-Verantwortung-_arid,2218448.html","kind":"news_report","access":"read","language":"de","translation_note":"Read in German by the research agent (an AI) on 2026-10-25 and translated by the research agent (an AI) into English; no human translator or reviewer was involved. Pforzheimer Zeitung, 17 May 2025; HTTP 200 but paywalled: only the opening paragraph was inspected, used for the year of discovery. Names the reporter.","independence_group":"pforzheimer-zeitung-may-2025"}],"version":1,"ai_roles":["own_use"],"contexts":["work","privacy","justice"],"unknowns":["On which dates and in which Copilot product version the answers were given, and how many other people saw them.","The prosecutors' decisions and the data-protection authority's file, which were not inspected.","Whether the cease-and-desist demand led to any legal proceedings or settlement."],"geography":{"basis":"He works as a court reporter in the Tübingen area for several publications (The Register). He found the answers by asking about himself; the country rests on his working area, not on the outlets or on the seat of the Bavarian data-protection authority that intervened.","court_countries":[],"event_countries":["DE"],"affected_person_countries":["DE"]},"publication":{"basis":"Published because Copilot's own answers attributed crimes to a named court reporter and, as reported, disclosed his contact details, and he described the effect; the account rests on his statements to SWR and The Register as reported, with Microsoft's statement.","reviewed_on":"2026-10-25"},"ai_involvement":{"basis":"Copilot's own answers made the claims: asked about the reporter, it attributed to him the crimes of defendants in trials he had covered, and, per SWR as relayed by heise and ComputerBild, gave his phone number, address and a route to it. The reporter found the answers by asking it about himself, and heise reports the answers returned after a temporary removal.","status":"supported"},"person_relations":["made_claim_about"]},"name":"German court reporter says Microsoft Copilot described him as a child abuser and fraudster and gave out his address; prosecutors rejected his complaint","summary":"A court reporter from the Tübingen area found in 2024 that Microsoft's Copilot, asked about him, described him as a man charged in a child abuse case, an escapee from a psychiatric institution and a fraudster who cheated widows, according to his account to the public broadcaster SWR as relayed by heise and ComputerBild. All were defendants in trials he had covered as a journalist. heise and ComputerBild, both citing SWR, report that Copilot also gave his private phone number and full home address and offered a route there. He told The Register that seeing his name tied to these crimes was traumatising and that prosecutors had rejected his criminal complaint in two instances; according to the SWR account relayed by heise, the complaint failed because no real person was the author. After the Bavarian data-protection authority contacted Microsoft the claims were briefly unavailable and then returned. Microsoft told The Register it had investigated and taken appropriate and immediate action.","incidentDate":"2024-01-01","incidentKind":"ongoing_experience","incidentDatePrecision":"year","exposurePattern":"repeated_interactions","reportedDate":"2024-08-20","aiSystem":"Microsoft Copilot (Bing Copilot), whose answers to questions about the reporter attributed crimes from his court reports to him","aiProduct":"Microsoft Copilot","severity":"medium","verificationStatus":"credible","harmCategories":[],"harmOutcomes":["reputational_harm","psychological_distress"],"harmOutcomeSummary":"Copilot attributed to a court reporter the crimes of defendants he had covered and, per SWR as relayed by heise and ComputerBild, gave out his phone number and address; he called the experience traumatising, and his criminal complaint was rejected (heise; The Register).","frameworkFacets":[],"causationStatus":"supported","participantUsersAffectedMin":1,"otherPeopleHarmedMin":0,"affectedCountStatus":"exact","affectedCountEvidence":"One person: the court reporter, who discovered the answers by asking Copilot about himself (The Register). Exact 1.","victimAgeRange":"adult","jurisdiction":"DE","platformType":"assistant","outcomeType":"internal_action","outcomeStatus":"unknown","primarySourceUrl":"https://www.heise.de/news/Copilot-macht-aus-einem-Gerichtsreporter-einen-Kinderschaender-9840437.html","primarySourceLabel":"heise online, 20 August 2024: Copilot turns a court reporter into a child abuser","firstPublishedAt":"2026-10-25T03:21:39.743612+00:00","updatedAt":"2026-10-25T03:21:39.743612+00:00","scopeVersion":"facts-v3","tags":["microsoft-copilot","false-accusation","defamation","personal-data-disclosure","germany","journalist"]},{"id":"2024-detmold-court-convicts-man-who-admitted-ai-built-fake-shops-and-generated-voice-defrauding-32-buyers","caseFacts":{"claims":[{"id":"c1","status":"reported","evidence":[{"locator":"'So flossen insgesamt 19.190 Euro in seinen Besitz.'; 'mithilfe gefälschter Online-Shops zwischen April 2024 und September 2025'; '32 Kundinnen und Kunden zahlten teils hohe Summen für bei ebay oder TikTok eingestellte Boxspringbetten, Küchen und Autos, die nie existiert hatten.'","relation":"supports","source_id":"s1"}],"assertion":"The Lippische Landes-Zeitung reported on 4 August 2026 that a man confessed at his trial before the lay-assessor court in Detmold to taking 19,190 euros from buyers between April 2024 and September 2025 through fake online shops: 32 customers paid, in some cases large sums, for box-spring beds, kitchens and cars listed on eBay or TikTok that never existed.","causal_attribution":"The defendant's confession at trial as reported by one newspaper; the court accepted his account."},{"id":"c2","status":"reported","evidence":[{"locator":"'Eine weibliche Stimme für ein Telefongespräch mit einem Kunden habe er mittels Künstlicher Intelligenz extra generiert'; 'Auch beim Aufbau der gefälschten Websites habe KI ihm geholfen, sagt er.'; 'Um die angehenden Käufer zu täuschen, legte der Angeklagte offenbar halbwegs seriös wirkende Internetseiten an.'","relation":"supports","source_id":"s1"},{"locator":"'mithilfe von KI mehrere Fakeshops eröffnet und online knapp 20.000 Euro erbeutet zu haben'","relation":"supports","source_id":"s2"}],"assertion":"According to the same report, the defendant told the court that he had generated a female voice with artificial intelligence for a telephone call with a customer and that AI had helped him build the fake websites; at his former partner's trial in October he again said he had opened several fake shops with the help of AI.","causal_attribution":"The defendant's own statements in court, reported by one newspaper in two articles; no tool, generated page or recording is described."},{"id":"c3","status":"reported","evidence":[{"locator":"'verurteilt ihn letztendlich wegen Betrugs in 32 Fällen zu zweieinhalb Jahren Haft'; 'Die erbeutete Summe soll er zurückzahlen.'; 'Alle hatten Anzeige erstattet.'","relation":"supports","source_id":"s1"},{"locator":"'Das Geständnis hatte ihn eine zweieinhalbjährige Freiheitsstrafe eingebracht.'","relation":"supports","source_id":"s2"}],"assertion":"The court convicted him of fraud in 32 cases, sentenced him to two and a half years in prison and ordered him to repay the money; all the customers had filed criminal complaints.","causal_attribution":"Court outcome as reported by one newspaper; the judgment itself was not read."},{"id":"c4","status":"reported","evidence":[{"locator":"'Obwohl das gegen ihn gesprochene Urteil noch nicht rechtskräftig ist und seine Berufung läuft'","relation":"supports","source_id":"s2"}],"assertion":"The newspaper reported in October 2026 that the judgment against him was not yet final because his appeal was pending.","causal_attribution":"Procedural status as reported by one newspaper."},{"id":"c5","status":"reported","evidence":[{"locator":"'Obwohl mehrere für den Betrug genutzte Konten auf den Namen seiner damaligen Lebensgefährtin liefen'; 'Am Ende beantragen sowohl Staatsanwaltschaft als auch Verteidigung einen Freispruch.'; 'nun am Dienstagmorgen wie selbstverständlich neben ihrem Verteidiger'","relation":"supports","source_id":"s2"}],"assertion":"On Tuesday 13 October 2026 the same court acquitted his former partner, who had been charged with commercial fraud because several accounts used in the frauds were in her name; the prosecution and the defence both asked for acquittal.","causal_attribution":"Court outcome as reported by one newspaper; the date is the Tuesday of the report published on 13 October 2026."},{"id":"c6","status":"reported","evidence":[{"locator":"'Zwar erleichtere die KI in der heutigen Zeit Betrugstaten.'; 'Um einen funktionierenden Fakeshop aufzubauen, müsse man aber hohen Organisationsaufwand betreiben'","relation":"supports","source_id":"s1"}],"assertion":"The presiding judge said that AI makes fraud easier today but that building a working fake shop still takes considerable organisation.","causal_attribution":"The judge's remark in the oral reasoning as reported; it is not a finding about which parts of the fraud the AI produced."}],"effects":[{"label":"32 buyers paid for box-spring beds, kitchens and cars that never existed, 19,190 euros in total","claim_id":"c1","direction":"negative"}],"sources":[{"id":"s1","url":"https://www.lz.de/lippe/detmold/24389324_Mit-KI-und-Fakeshops-fast-20.000-Euro-erbeutet-Detmolder-muss-mehrere-Jahre-in-Haft.html","kind":"news_report","access":"read","language":"de","translation_note":"Read in the original German on 2026-10-14 (HTTP 200; the article text is carried in the page's structured data) by the research agent (an AI); English renderings in this record are the research agent's own translations and no human translator reviewed them. Lippische Landes-Zeitung court report published 4 August 2026, 19:03, on the trial and conviction of the man who ran the fake shops.","independence_group":"lz-detmold-court-reports"},{"id":"s2","url":"https://www.lz.de/lippe/detmold/24440004_Monatelang-auf-der-Flucht-Frau-nach-Betrug-mit-KI-Fakeshops-in-Detmold-freigesprochen.html","kind":"news_report","access":"read","language":"de","translation_note":"Read in the original German on 2026-10-14 (HTTP 200; the article text is carried in the page's structured data) by the research agent (an AI); English renderings in this record are the research agent's own translations and no human translator reviewed them. Lippische Landes-Zeitung court report published 13 October 2026, 17:45, on the acquittal of his former partner; same newspaper as s1, so not independent of it.","independence_group":"lz-detmold-court-reports"}],"version":1,"ai_roles":["others_use"],"contexts":["finance","everyday_life"],"unknowns":["Which AI tools the defendant used, and what the AI produced on the websites.","Which buyers saw AI-built pages, and which customer heard the generated voice and what that customer lost.","The exact date of the conviction; the report was published on 4 August 2026.","The outcome of the defendant's appeal."],"geography":{"basis":"The buyers were spread across Germany ('die über Deutschland verstreuten Kundinnen und Kunden', s1), which places the losses and the affected people in Germany; the trials were held at the Amtsgericht Detmold (s1, s2).","court_countries":["DE"],"event_countries":["DE"],"affected_person_countries":["DE"]},"publication":{"basis":"Published as a reported case: according to the Lippische Landes-Zeitung, a man convicted in Detmold of fraud in 32 cases told the court that AI helped him build the fake shop websites and generated a female voice he used in a call with a customer; 32 buyers paid for goods that never existed. The AI involvement rests on the defendant's admission as reported by one newspaper; the defendant and his acquitted former partner are not named.","reviewed_on":"2026-10-14"},"ai_involvement":{"basis":"The defendant told the Detmold court, as the Lippische Landes-Zeitung reported, that he generated a female voice with artificial intelligence for a telephone call with a customer and that AI helped him build the fake shop websites, which he set up to make the offers look credible to buyers; 32 buyers paid for goods that never existed. The generated voice and the AI-built pages were presented to buyers as part of the deception (communicated_with). The attribution rests on the defendant's own admission, which the court accepted; no tool is named, and which buyers saw AI-built pages or heard the voice is not reported.","status":"reported"},"person_relations":["communicated_with"]},"name":"Detmold, Germany: court convicts a man who admitted using AI to build fake shop websites and a generated voice in frauds on 32 buyers","summary":"A man tried before the lay-assessor court in Detmold, Germany, confessed to taking 19,190 euros between April 2024 and September 2025 from 32 buyers who paid for box-spring beds, kitchens and cars listed on eBay or TikTok that never existed, the Lippische Landes-Zeitung reported on 4 August 2026. He told the court that AI had helped him build the fake shop websites he used to make the offers look credible and that he had generated a female voice with AI for a telephone call with a customer. The court convicted him of fraud in 32 cases and sentenced him to two and a half years in prison; his appeal is pending. On 13 October 2026 the court acquitted his former partner, in whose name several of the accounts had been opened.","incidentDate":"2024-04-01","incidentKind":"bounded_series","incidentDatePrecision":"month","exposurePattern":"repeated_interactions","reportedDate":"2026-08-04","aiSystem":"AI tools, not named, that the defendant said helped him build the fake shop websites and generated a female voice for a call with a customer (his admission in court, as reported)","aiProduct":"Unidentified website and voice tool","severity":"medium","verificationStatus":"credible","harmCategories":[],"harmOutcomes":["financial_loss"],"harmOutcomeSummary":"According to the defendant's confession as reported by the Lippische Landes-Zeitung, 32 buyers paid a total of 19,190 euros for goods that never existed in fake-shop offers he said he built with AI help, including a generated voice used in a call with a customer.","frameworkFacets":[],"causationStatus":"supported","participantUsersAffectedMin":0,"otherPeopleHarmedMin":32,"affectedCountStatus":"documented_minimum","affectedCountEvidence":"32 customers: the newspaper reports that 32 customers paid and that the court convicted him of fraud in 32 cases. None of them used the AI; the defendant did. The former partner's prosecution is not counted as an AI-related harm. The court said it could not rule out further cases ('Ob es vielleicht noch weitere Fälle gibt, kann das Gericht nicht ausschließen'), so 32 is a documented minimum.","jurisdiction":"DE","platformType":"other","outcomeType":"criminal_charges","outcomeStatus":"ongoing","primarySourceUrl":"https://www.lz.de/lippe/detmold/24389324_Mit-KI-und-Fakeshops-fast-20.000-Euro-erbeutet-Detmolder-muss-mehrere-Jahre-in-Haft.html","primarySourceLabel":"Lippische Landes-Zeitung, 4 August 2026: Mit KI und Fakeshops fast 20.000 Euro erbeutet: Detmolder muss mehrere Jahre in Haft","firstPublishedAt":"2026-10-14T03:09:20.388157+00:00","updatedAt":"2026-10-14T03:09:20.388157+00:00","scopeVersion":"facts-v3","tags":["fake-shop-fraud","ai-built-websites","ai-generated-voice","online-marketplace","criminal-conviction","germany"]}]}