{ "meta": { "exportedAt": "2026-09-22T14:32:57.175Z", "formatVersion": 2, "selection": { "q": "united-kingdom", "system": "", "harm": "", "context": "", "country": "", "role": "", "relation": "", "evidence": "", "year": "", "response": "", "severity": "", "verification": "", "view": "incidents", "sort": "added" }, "totalIncidents": 3, "coverage": { "cases": 3, "countries": 1, "languages": 1, "unknownLocation": 0, "locationPending": 0, "unknownLanguage": 0, "unknownDate": 1, "lawsuits": 0, "regulatory": 1, "minors": 0, "coreRelations": 2, "contextualRelations": 0, "mixedRelations": 0, "unknownRelations": 1, "relationPending": 0, "relationUnknown": 1 }, "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": "NOPE Incident Tracker", "url": "https://nope.net/incidents", "license": "CC BY 4.0" }, "incidents": [ { "id": "2026-northern-ireland-ai-celebrity-video-investment-scam", "caseFacts": { "claims": [ { "id": "c1", "status": "reported", "evidence": [ { "locator": "'A person has lost £250,000 after falling victim to an AI-generated scam'; 'saw what appeared to be an AI-generated video featuring a well-known personality from the financial sector'; 'persuaded the victim in the Ards and north Down area to create multiple online accounts and gained remote access to their computer'.", "relation": "supports", "source_id": "s1" }, { "locator": "'a victim lost £250,000 in Ards and North Down'; 'encouraged to borrow money to continue investing'; 'further payments were required before money supposedly held in the investment could be released'.", "relation": "supports", "source_id": "s2" }, { "locator": "'the victim was encouraged to borrow money to continue investing. Funds were transferred to accounts controlled by the criminals'.", "relation": "supports", "source_id": "s3" } ], "assertion": "A person in the Ards and North Down area lost £250,000 to an investment fraud that began with an apparently AI-generated video of a well-known financial personality, progressed through WhatsApp contact, multiple new online accounts, remote access to the victim's computer and borrowing to invest, and ended with demands for further payments to release the funds.", "causal_attribution": "Single PSNI account relayed by three outlets; the AI-generated nature of the video is the police's description ('what appeared to be')." } ], "effects": [ { "label": "one person lost £250,000 (partly borrowed) to an investment fraud lured by an AI-generated celebrity video", "claim_id": "c1", "direction": "negative" } ], "sources": [ { "id": "s1", "url": "https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cx2zkp8vx9jo", "kind": "news_report", "access": "read", "language": "en", "translation_note": "Read in English on 2026-09-17 and 2026-09-18 (BBC News NI, Ben Lonsdale, 7 Sep 2026). Reports the PSNI statement and adds that BBC News NI has seen online scams using Martin Lewis, Peter Jones and Steven Bartlett; the PSNI did not confirm the personality.", "independence_group": "psni-statement" }, { "id": "s2", "url": "https://www.irishnews.com/news/northern-ireland/psni-urging-public-to-be-vigilant-after-sophisticated-investment-fraud-victim-looses-250000-IZL253VWX5BOLJN7ZKZ56RUYDY/", "kind": "news_report", "access": "read", "language": "en", "translation_note": "Read in English on 2026-09-18 via the MSN content API copy (Irish News, 7 Sep 2026). Carries the full PSNI statement including the Inspector Youle and Superintendent Gibson quotations.", "independence_group": "psni-statement" }, { "id": "s3", "url": "https://www.farminglife.com/news/crime/warning-after-victim-loses-ps250000-in-ai-investment-scam-in-northern-ireland-8972844", "kind": "news_report", "access": "read", "language": "en", "translation_note": "Read in English on 2026-09-18 via the MSN content API copy (Farming Life, 7 Sep 2026). Same PSNI statement.", "independence_group": "psni-statement" } ], "version": 1, "ai_roles": [ "others_use" ], "contexts": [ "finance", "everyday_life" ], "unknowns": [ "The dates over which the fraud ran are not given.", "The impersonated personality and the AI tool are not identified.", "No arrest or recovery of funds is reported.", "The victim's age and circumstances are not described." ], "geography": { "basis": "The PSNI locates the victim in the Ards and North Down area of Northern Ireland (UK, recorded as GB). No court proceeding.", "court_countries": [], "event_countries": [ "GB" ], "affected_person_countries": [ "GB" ] }, "publication": { "basis": "Published under the 2026-09-15 charter as an impersonation-fraud case with a concrete, police-reported consequence: one identified-but-anonymous person lost £250,000 after an AI-generated celebrity video lure. Three outlets read, all relaying one PSNI statement; claim status reported.", "reviewed_on": "2026-09-18" }, "ai_involvement": { "basis": "The PSNI says the fraud began with 'what appeared to be an AI-generated video' of a financial personality; no technical confirmation is published. The relation recorded is that the AI artifact depicted and impersonated a public figure to reach the victim; the victim's own dealings were with human fraudsters on WhatsApp.", "status": "reported" }, "person_relations": [ "depicted_or_impersonated" ] }, "name": "Ards and North Down, Northern Ireland: a person lost £250,000 to an investment fraud that began with an AI-generated video of a well-known financial personality", "summary": "On 7 September 2026 the Police Service of Northern Ireland (PSNI) said a person in the Ards and North Down area had lost £250,000 in what it called a 'sophisticated and substantial' investment fraud. The victim first saw what appeared to be an AI-generated online video featuring a well-known personality from the financial sector promoting an investment with significant returns. After investing a small amount the victim was contacted on WhatsApp and encouraged to pay more, persuaded to open multiple online accounts, to allow the fraudsters remote access to a computer 'to assist with the investment', to borrow money to keep investing, and finally to make further payments to 'release' funds supposedly held in the investment. The PSNI did not name the personality; BBC News NI noted that fabricated endorsements of financial experts such as Martin Lewis, Peter Jones and Steven Bartlett circulate online.", "incidentKind": "ongoing_experience", "incidentDatePrecision": "unknown", "exposurePattern": "repeated_interactions", "reportedDate": "2026-09-07", "aiSystem": "AI-generated video impersonating a well-known financial personality (tool not identified; personality not named by police)", "severity": "high", "verificationStatus": "credible", "harmCategories": [], "harmOutcomes": [ "financial_loss" ], "harmOutcomeSummary": "One person lost £250,000, including borrowed money, to an investment fraud that used an AI-generated video of a financial personality as its lure and progressed through WhatsApp grooming and remote computer access.", "frameworkFacets": [], "causationStatus": "supported", "participantUsersAffectedMin": 0, "otherPeopleHarmedMin": 1, "affectedCountStatus": "exact", "affectedCountEvidence": "The PSNI describes a single victim who lost £250,000. Exact count of one.", "victimAgeRange": "unknown", "jurisdiction": "GB", "platformType": "other", "outcomeType": "investigation_opened", "outcomeStatus": "ongoing", "primarySourceUrl": "https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cx2zkp8vx9jo", "primarySourceLabel": "BBC News NI, 7 Sep 2026: Victim loses £250k after scammers use AI video of 'well-known' celebrity (PSNI statement)", "firstPublishedAt": "2026-09-18T03:25:09.292712+00:00", "scopeVersion": "facts-v3", "tags": [ "deepfake", "ai-generated-video", "celebrity-impersonation", "investment-fraud", "united-kingdom", "northern-ireland", "psni", "financial-loss" ] }, { "id": "2026-arnold-sainsburys-facewatch-misidentification", "caseFacts": { "claims": [ { "id": "c1", "status": "reported", "evidence": [ { "locator": "'The incident happened on 6 August as Arnold... was waiting for a staff member to approve an alcohol purchase'; '\"The staff member said I'd been identified by the AI, and the cameras had flagged me,\" he told BBC London'; 'After being escorted off the premises, Arnold said he had looked back from the entrance and saw an overhead CCTV monitor alert with a red circle surrounding his face.'", "relation": "supports", "source_id": "s1" } ], "assertion": "On 6 August 2026 at Sainsbury's East Dulwich store, two managers told Arnold he could not be served because of an incident earlier in the week, a staff member said he had been identified by the AI, and he was escorted out; he saw a monitor alert circling his face as he left.", "causal_attribution": "Arnold's own account to the BBC; the retailer confirms the wrongful challenge and apologised." }, { "id": "c2", "status": "reported", "evidence": [ { "locator": "'Sainsbury's head office contacted Arnold the following day to apologise, maintaining the incident had been caused by \"human error\" rather than software failure'; spokesperson: 'The incident was caused by human error, not the facial recognition technology'; Facewatch: 'A correct alert was sent to the retailer, but was subsequently subject to human error in the way it was handled in store'.", "relation": "supports", "source_id": "s1" } ], "assertion": "Sainsbury's apologised the next day, attributed the mistake to human error rather than the facial-recognition technology, and paused the Facewatch system at the Dulwich store while it investigates; Facewatch said a correct alert had been sent and was mishandled in store.", "causal_attribution": "Company statements as quoted by the BBC; they contest the system's role, which is why AI involvement is recorded as disputed." }, { "id": "c3", "status": "reported", "evidence": [ { "locator": "'In September, Warren Rajah was ordered out of a branch in Elephant and Castle after being wrongly flagged by the same Facewatch software - with the security firm later confirming he was not even on its system.'", "relation": "supports", "source_id": "s1" } ], "assertion": "A second shopper, Warren Rajah, was ordered out of a Sainsbury's in Elephant and Castle in September 2025 after being wrongly flagged by the same Facewatch software, which later confirmed he was not on its system.", "causal_attribution": "Reported by the BBC as background to the same deployment; not part of this case count." } ], "effects": [ { "label": "publicly treated as a shoplifter and escorted out after a facial-recognition alert; retailer apologised", "claim_id": "c1", "direction": "negative" } ], "sources": [ { "id": "s1", "url": "https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cddjlmeqjgyo", "kind": "news_report", "access": "read", "language": "en", "translation_note": "Read in English on 2026-09-16 (datePublished 2026-08-17; BBC London; Arnold's interview, Sainsbury's and Facewatch statements, Big Brother Watch comment).", "independence_group": "bbc" } ], "version": 1, "ai_roles": [ "institutional_use" ], "contexts": [ "everyday_life" ], "unknowns": [ "Whether the system's alert concerned Arnold's face or another person's, and what the staff saw on the alert, is not established; the retailer and vendor say the alert was correct and mishandled.", "The outcome of Sainsbury's investigation and whether the system was reinstated at the store are not reported.", "Arnold's place of residence is not stated.", "No second reporting chain was inspected; the BBC account is the only source read." ], "geography": { "basis": "Event: Sainsbury's East Dulwich superstore, London (BBC London). Affected person: a London-based promoter working next door to the store; the BBC does not state his residence, so his country rests on the event setting. No court.", "court_countries": [], "event_countries": [ "GB" ], "affected_person_countries": [ "GB" ] }, "publication": { "basis": "Published under the 2026-09-15 charter as an ordinary adverse experience with an automated system: a named shopper, in his own BBC interview, describes being publicly treated as a shoplifter after a facial-recognition alert, and the retailer confirms the wrongful challenge and apologised while disputing the system's role. Low severity; the dispute over AI involvement is recorded rather than resolved.", "reviewed_on": "2026-09-16" }, "ai_involvement": { "basis": "Arnold says staff told him the AI had flagged him and that he saw a monitor alert circling his face; Sainsbury's and Facewatch say a correct alert was generated and then mishandled by staff, attributing the wrong-person challenge to human error. The inspected source does not settle whether the system matched his face or another person's, so the relation between the system and him is recorded as unknown.", "status": "disputed" }, "person_relations": [ "unknown" ] }, "name": "London: shopper told to leave a Sainsbury's after staff said the store's facial-recognition system had flagged him as a shoplifter; the retailer blamed human error and paused the system at the branch", "summary": "On 6 August 2026 Matt Arnold, 46, was stopped by two managers at a self-service till in Sainsbury's East Dulwich store, told he could not be served because of an incident 'earlier in the week', and escorted out; he says a staff member told him he had been 'identified by the AI' and that he saw a monitor alert with a red circle around his face on his way out. Sainsbury's apologised the next day, said the mistake was 'caused by human error, not the facial recognition technology', and paused its Facewatch live facial-recognition system at the branch while it investigates; Facewatch said a correct alert had been sent and was then mishandled in store. Arnold described the experience as humiliating and a 'terrifying glimpse of the future'. It follows an earlier wrongful challenge of another shopper at a Sainsbury's in Elephant and Castle.", "incidentDate": "2026-08-06", "incidentKind": "single_event", "incidentDatePrecision": "day", "exposurePattern": "single_interaction", "reportedDate": "2026-08-17", "aiSystem": "Facewatch live facial recognition (deployed by Sainsbury's)", "aiCompany": "Facewatch", "severity": "low", "verificationStatus": "credible", "harmCategories": [], "harmOutcomes": [ "psychological_distress", "reputational_harm" ], "harmOutcomeSummary": "A shopper was publicly treated as a shoplifter and escorted out of a supermarket after an alert from the store's facial-recognition system; he describes humiliation and lasting unease, and the retailer apologised.", "frameworkFacets": [], "causationStatus": "disputed", "participantUsersAffectedMin": 0, "otherPeopleHarmedMin": 1, "affectedCountStatus": "exact", "affectedCountEvidence": "One person, Matt Arnold, was challenged and escorted out; the earlier Elephant and Castle shopper is a separate reported incident and is not counted here.", "victimAgeRange": "adult", "jurisdiction": "GB", "platformType": "other", "outcomeType": "internal_action", "outcomeStatus": "ongoing", "primarySourceUrl": "https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cddjlmeqjgyo", "primarySourceLabel": "BBC News London, 17 August 2026: Sainsbury's branch halts AI use as shopper wrongly challenged (interview with Arnold; Sainsbury's and Facewatch statements)", "firstPublishedAt": "2026-09-16T03:16:36.926518+00:00", "scopeVersion": "facts-v3", "tags": [ "facial-recognition", "facewatch", "retail", "united-kingdom", "london", "automated-decision", "everyday-life" ] }, { "id": "2025-tyler-deepfake-conviction-uk", "caseFacts": { "claims": [ { "id": "c1", "status": "reported", "evidence": [ { "locator": "'used artificial intelligence (AI) to create deepfake pornography of women he knew has been jailed for five years'; '20 women were targeted in 173 online posts by Tyler, of Railway Street, between March 2023 and May 2024'; 'Another explicit edit was made on a photograph of a 16-year-old girl on her prom night'; 'posted his victims' names and social media handles online, as well as their phone numbers'; 'He admitted 18 counts of causing harassment without violence and 15 counts of sharing an intimate photo or film'.", "relation": "supports", "source_id": "s1" } ], "assertion": "Between March 2023 and May 2024 Tyler used AI to make sexually explicit images of 20 women he knew from their social-media photos, including a 16-year-old's prom photo, and posted them 173 times with their names, handles and phone numbers on a forum glorifying rape culture; on 4 April 2025 he was jailed for five years after admitting 18 harassment counts and 15 counts of sharing intimate images.", "causal_attribution": "Court proceedings reported by the BBC; guilty pleas." }, { "id": "c2", "status": "reported", "evidence": [ { "locator": "'One said she continued to receive \"anonymous sexual comments\" from people calling her phone, claiming it led to her long-term relationship ending. \"I have and still do feel completely violated by what Brandon did to me\"'; 'clearly intended to degrade and humiliate'.", "relation": "supports", "source_id": "s1" } ], "assertion": "Victims described continuing anonymous sexual phone calls, the end of a long-term relationship, and feeling 'completely violated'; the judge said Tyler intended to degrade and humiliate them.", "causal_attribution": "Victim impact evidence and sentencing remarks reported by the BBC." } ], "effects": [ { "label": "20 women depicted in AI-made sexual images posted with their names and phone numbers on a rape-glorifying forum; harassment and humiliation described in court", "claim_id": "c1", "direction": "negative" } ], "sources": [ { "id": "s1", "url": "https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cewgxd5yewjo", "kind": "news_report", "access": "read", "language": "en", "translation_note": "Read in English on 2026-09-18 (BBC News Essex, Lewis Adams, from Chelmsford Crown Court, 4 April 2025). Court reporting with prosecutor, judge and victim quotations.", "independence_group": "bbc" } ], "version": 1, "ai_roles": [ "others_use" ], "contexts": [ "relationships", "privacy", "justice" ], "unknowns": [ "The AI tools and the forum are not named in the inspected reporting.", "Whether the 16-year-old's image was charged as an indecent image of a child is not stated (the charges reported are harassment and intimate-image sharing).", "Any appeal or licence conditions are not reported." ], "geography": { "basis": "Perpetrator from Braintree, Essex; victims were women he knew personally (BBC); sentenced at Chelmsford Crown Court, England (UK, recorded as GB).", "court_countries": [ "GB" ], "event_countries": [ "GB" ], "affected_person_countries": [ "GB" ] }, "publication": { "basis": "Restored under the 2026-09-15 charter as a harmful-artifact case with identified (unnamed) depicted victims, a criminal conviction and victim-impact evidence. One court-reporting chain read; claims recorded as reported. Original ID and first-publication timestamp preserved.", "reviewed_on": "2026-09-18" }, "ai_involvement": { "basis": "The court heard, and the defendant admitted through his pleas, that he used AI to edit the women's images into sexual content; the BBC reports the prosecutor's account of AI removal of clothing. The tools depicted the affected women; they did not interact with them.", "status": "supported" }, "person_relations": [ "depicted_or_impersonated" ] }, "name": "Braintree, Essex: a bar worker was jailed for five years for making AI deepfake pornography of 20 women he knew, including a 16-year-old's prom photo, and posting it with their names and phone numbers on a forum glorifying rape", "summary": "Between March 2023 and May 2024 Brandon Tyler, 26, a bar worker from Braintree, Essex, took images from the social-media pages of 20 women he knew, used AI to remove clothing or otherwise make them sexually explicit, and posted 173 times on an online forum that, in the prosecutor's words, championed 'rape culture and sexual violence to women', adding the women's names, social-media handles and phone numbers and, under one picture, asking 'which one deserves to be gang raped?'. One edit was made from a 16-year-old girl's prom-night photograph. He was caught after including his own Instagram handle in a screenshot. On 4 April 2025 at Chelmsford Crown Court, having admitted 18 counts of causing harassment without violence and 15 counts of sharing an intimate photo or film for sexual gratification, he was sentenced to five years' imprisonment; Judge Alexander Mills called his conduct 'the worst kind of toxic masculinity'. Two victims told the court of the impact: one said she still received anonymous sexual calls and that her long-term relationship had ended; another said she felt 'completely violated'.", "incidentDate": "2023-03-01", "incidentEndDate": "2024-05-01", "incidentKind": "bounded_series", "incidentDatePrecision": "range", "exposurePattern": "repeated_interactions", "reportedDate": "2025-04-04", "aiSystem": "AI image-editing / 'undressing' tools (not named in the inspected court reporting)", "severity": "high", "verificationStatus": "credible", "harmCategories": [], "harmOutcomes": [ "exploitation_or_abuse", "psychological_distress", "reputational_harm", "relationship_disruption" ], "harmOutcomeSummary": "Twenty women, one of them 16 in the photograph used, were depicted in AI-made sexual images posted with their contact details on a forum glorifying sexual violence; victims described continuing harassment, humiliation and, in one case, the end of a relationship. The perpetrator was jailed for five years.", "frameworkFacets": [], "causationStatus": "established", "participantUsersAffectedMin": 0, "otherPeopleHarmedMin": 20, "affectedCountStatus": "exact", "affectedCountEvidence": "The court heard that 20 women were targeted in 173 posts (BBC). Exact count of 20 from the prosecution's case; the 16-year-old is one of the 20.", "victimAgeRange": "adult", "jurisdiction": "GB", "platformType": "other", "outcomeType": "criminal_charges", "outcomeStatus": "resolved", "primarySourceUrl": "https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cewgxd5yewjo", "primarySourceLabel": "BBC News Essex, 4 April 2025: man jailed for five years for AI deepfake pornography of 20 women he knew (Chelmsford Crown Court sentencing report)", "firstPublishedAt": "2026-03-09T05:45:24.153671+00:00", "scopeVersion": "facts-v3", "tags": [ "deepfake", "ai-undressing", "ncii", "doxxing", "united-kingdom", "essex", "criminal-conviction", "online-safety-act", "depicted" ] } ] }