25 Jan 2025 to 4 Apr 2025IndiaUnidentified video tool
Police in Karnataka, India, said in May 2025 that cybercriminals used an AI-generated video of US President Donald Trump to draw people into a fake 'Trump Hotel Rentals' investment scheme run through a mobile app. A lawyer told police and the Indian Express that in January 2025 he saw short YouTube videos offering investment in Donald Trump hotels, downloaded the app, and deposited Rs 5,93,240 between 25 January and 4 April 2025 after small early payouts, then could not withdraw anything. Police registered a case under the IT Act and the cheating provision of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita and froze Rs 1.5 lakh in a recipient account. Reports describe more than 200 complaints across Karnataka districts with losses near Rs 2 crore; how many of those people saw the video is not established. The technical basis for the police description of the video as AI-generated is not disclosed.
Core concern Medium reported severity Investigation Opened
AI involvement reported · Causal attribution alleged · 3 sources · Added 21/10/2026
Event date unknownSenegalUnidentified voice-changing tool
Senegalese police in Touba said in February 2026 that a man had downloaded photos and videos a woman posted in her WhatsApp status updates and used them to create fake profiles. According to the investigation, he used artificial intelligence tools to transform his voice in real time during audio and video calls so that the female persona was believable, and through it attracted men and women, sent them sexual material and asked them for money or phone credit. The woman, a former in-law of the suspect, had complained on 16 February of a smear campaign and misuse of her images. Police say several victims were heard, that some had their images used for virtual prostitution, and that the suspect confessed after his arrest on 19 February. The police account does not say how investigators established the AI use or which tool it was.
Core concern Medium reported severity Criminal Charges
AI involvement reported · Causal attribution alleged · 2 sources, 1 underlying account · Added 21/10/2026
18 May 2025 to 20 May 2025United StatesUnidentified AI writing tool
On Sunday 18 May 2025 the Chicago Sun-Times print and e-paper editions carried a licensed special section, the Heat Index, whose summer reading list recommended books that do not exist. The newspaper said the list was created through the use of an AI tool and that King Features, the syndicator, had worked with a freelancer who used an AI agent to help build the section. Ars Technica's check found that only five of the fifteen recommended books exist, the rest being fabricated titles attributed to real authors. The freelancer told 404 Media, as relayed by Ars Technica, that he had used AI and had not checked the material this time. King Features said the freelancer used AI in its story development without disclosing it, contrary to its policy, and that it was terminating its relationship with him.
Core concern Low reported severity Internal Action
AI involvement supported · Causal attribution supported · 2 sources · Added 21/10/2026
Event date unknownUnited KingdomUnidentified image tool
The Metropolitan Police said on 24 September 2026 that a man from London had been sentenced at Wood Green Crown Court to two years and four months after pleading guilty to offences including making indecent images of children and creating a purported intimate image of adults. Detectives established that he had photographed women and children in ordinary circumstances, many from his bedroom window overlooking a children's playground, before using AI to turn the photos into sexually explicit images, including by removing their clothing. A limited number of those photographed have been identified and are receiving specialist support. The Commissioner said a victim and their family felt forced to move to temporary accommodation because the man was bailed to his home near them before sentencing.
Core concern High reported severity Involving minors Criminal Charges
AI involvement reported · Causal attribution supported · 1 source · Added 20/10/2026
Event date unknownTürkiyeUnidentified image tool
The Kahramanmaras provincial police said in December 2025, in a statement reported by Anadolu Agency, that two high-school pupils had turned photographs from the social-media accounts of six girls attending various high schools into obscene content using artificial intelligence and had shared it. According to the Demiroren News Agency (DHA), the six girls went to the courthouse with their families to complain that their photographs had been manipulated into obscene images, and the police cyber-crime unit established that the images had been made with AI. Both boys were detained and remanded in custody by a duty judge, and DHA reports that the provincial education directorate's disciplinary board expelled them from school. The tool used is not named.
Core concern High reported severity Criminal Charges
AI involvement reported · Causal attribution alleged · 3 sources, 1 underlying account · Added 20/10/2026
Event date unknownEvent location unknownUnidentified image tool
The Crown Prosecution Service said on 28 October 2024 that a man from Bolton had been sentenced at Bolton Crown Court to 18 years' imprisonment with an additional six years on extended licence after pleading guilty to 16 child sexual abuse offences. According to the CPS, he used a computer programme and AI technology to alter photographs of real children into sexual abuse images, which he made to order for people in encrypted chatrooms and sold or shared, and some of the requested images used images of real children. The CPS says he admitted making about 5,000 pounds over 18 months. He was arrested by Greater Manchester Police in June 2023. The BBC court report says the offences were uncovered when he spoke to an undercover officer. He also admitted encouraging the rape of children under 13 in chatrooms.
Core concern Critical reported severity Involving minors Criminal Charges
AI involvement reported · Causal attribution supported · 2 sources · Added 20/10/2026
Event date unknownEvent location unknownUnidentified video tool (suspected)
The Ludwigshafen police directorate reported on 3 April 2025 that an older man from the Rhein-Pfalz district had seen a video online of a talk show on the German broadcaster ZDF in which large stock-market gains through a cryptocurrency were promised. The police say the video was presumably generated by AI. He then phoned a supposed personal financial adviser and over six months transferred about 27,000 euros to foreign accounts. He became suspicious when the promised gains were not paid out despite repeated requests and further fees were demanded instead. The police do not say who appeared in the video or how they reached their view.
Core concern Medium reported severity Investigation Opened
AI involvement suspected · Causal attribution alleged · 1 source · Added 20/10/2026
May 2026 to Jun 2026Event location unknownUnidentified image and voice tool
The Oberbergischer Kreis police reported on 21 July 2026 that a woman had been in contact since mid-May with an unknown person posing as a widowed doctor from Ukraine, who exchanged chats, pictures and voice messages with her through a messaging service. On 23 June she transferred a mid four-figure sum the supposed doctor requested; bank staff held back a second, high four-figure transfer at the end of June. She reported the fraud on 20 July, and the police say first investigations showed that the pictures and voice messages she had received were apparently created with artificial intelligence.
Core concern Medium reported severity Investigation Opened
AI involvement reported · Causal attribution alleged · 1 source · Added 20/10/2026
Event date unknownEvent location unknownUnidentified image tool
The Westpfalz police headquarters reported on 3 June 2026, in a release datelined Kaiserslautern, that a woman had been extorted with an AI-generated nude photo. According to the police's current findings, a man edited a picture of her with artificial intelligence; through a messaging service he demanded a mid four-figure sum and threatened to publish the photo. She went to the police on Tuesday 2 June and an investigation was opened.
Core concern Medium reported severity Investigation Opened
AI involvement reported · Causal attribution alleged · 1 source · Added 20/10/2026
Event date unknownEvent location unknownUnidentified video tool
The Lippe police reported on 20 February 2026 that a man from the district had recently been defrauded through a supposed online trading platform, with a five-figure loss. According to the police, the fraudsters used adverts with AI-generated deepfake videos from supposed television programmes, repeatedly demanded fees after he registered and steered him to transfers to crypto exchanges. He was talked into taking out a loan to make further deposits, never received a payout, lost his savings and got into financial difficulty because of the loan. The police do not say whom the videos showed or how they established that they were AI-generated.
Core concern Medium reported severity
AI involvement reported · Causal attribution alleged · 1 source · Added 20/10/2026
Oct 2026IndiaUnidentified Google AI tool (reported)
In October 2026 a ticket inspector on the Somnath/Veraval-Jabalpur Express, after the train left Wankaner in Gujarat, found that two passengers were carrying fake tickets on their mobile phones; they were handed to the Railway Protection Force and railway police in Rajkot registered a case and detained them. According to Gujarat Samachar, the two were factory workers, one of them a minor, who wanted to go home and asked a man working at their factory for tickets; he made the tickets with the help of AI and Photoshop and charged Rs 2,000. Gujarat Samachar English reports that the railway police investigation traced the forged tickets to a Google AI application and WhatsApp, and that the man who made them was also arrested. The reports differ on the workers' role: Bombay Samachar says they were cheated and at first suspected nothing, while Gujarat Samachar English says all three accused, including the two passengers, were remanded to judicial custody. Gujarat Samachar English dates the check 15 October, and the reports name no specific AI product.
Core concern Medium reported severity Criminal Charges
AI involvement reported · Causal attribution supported · 3 sources, 2 underlying accounts · Added 20/10/2026
Event date unknownEvent location unknownEmochi, Pollybuzz and Character.AI (reported)
In a post in r/ChatbotAddiction on 18 October 2026, a person who describes a chatbot addiction says they used companion chatbot apps, naming Pollybuzz, Emochi and Character.AI, for three years, starting as a way to cope with autism and the isolation that comes with it. They say they quit cold turkey on 20 March 2025 and that this first time they quit they had a mental health episode, went to A&E once because of it, and were put on antidepressants, which they still take. They say that while using the apps they skipped school days. They write that exactly a year later they went back to the apps and could not stop, that since March 2026 it has consumed them again, and that they want to quit but do not know whether they can. They also say guilt hit them as soon as they stopped, that they knew the apps were bad for the planet but the urge was too strong, and that they currently have a gap in their antidepressant supply. The account is uncorroborated and no chats are shown.
Core concern Medium reported severity
AI involvement reported · Causal attribution alleged · 1 source · Added 20/10/2026
Event date unknownBrazilUnidentified image tool
The Polícia Civil de Goiás arrested a man in Rio Verde on Friday 16 October 2026 after his ex-partner reported receiving, through a messaging app, a view-once photo in which he appeared to hold a pistol inside a vehicle. According to the police, as reported by GYN Notícias and Metrópoles, no weapon was found in searches of his home and car, and he admitted sending the image and said he had used artificial-intelligence tools to make it look as if he were armed, in order to intimidate her. He was booked in flagrante for domestic violence against a woman under the Maria da Penha law and taken into custody.
Core concern Medium reported severity Criminal Charges
AI involvement reported · Causal attribution alleged · 2 sources, 1 underlying account · Added 20/10/2026
Jul 2023 to Jan 2024Event location unknownUnidentified image tool
Merseyside Police said in October 2024 that a Southport man had been jailed for two years and two months at Liverpool Crown Court after pleading guilty to making indecent photographs or pseudo-photographs of a child, sharing an intimate photograph or film, and voyeurism. According to the police, an investigation found that between July 2023 and January 2024 he made 266 indecent pseudo-images of children using AI technology, and that he used the faces of real women and children without their knowledge to create pornographic images, which the force calls deepfakes, and shared them online. Two women described in victim impact statements lasting fear, anxiety and a sense of violation. A woman related to him by marriage later told the Liverpool Echo that explicit images of her, which she found online after anonymous messages in September 2022, were made by other people he had asked to deface her photos, and that the case never went to prosecutors after his arrest in January 2023.
Core concern High reported severity Involving minors Criminal Charges
AI involvement reported · Causal attribution alleged · 5 sources, 2 underlying accounts · Added 20/10/2026
Sept 2026Event location unknownBooking.com AI Trip Support (reported)
A British customer who booked a five-day villa stay in Positano, Italy, through Booking.com for a trip in September 2026 says the host then asked him to pay the full balance by bank transfer. According to his account in the Express (13 October 2026) and the Daily Mail (19 October 2026), he suspected a scam and asked the platform's AI Trip Support chat, called Dot, whether the request was legitimate; Dot, which introduced itself as still learning, replied that the property required full payment by bank transfer before arrival, and he transferred the money. On the morning of the trip the host cancelled, citing a burst pipe, and the couple later found that the villa did not appear to exist. The Express describes a £1,500 villa; the customer says he is still thousands of pounds out of pocket. Booking.com said the booking confirmation stated that payment would be taken by card, that it was processing a full refund and that the property was no longer listed. The chatbot exchange rests on the customer's account; Booking.com's quoted statement does not address it.
Core concern Low reported severity Media Coverage
AI involvement reported · Causal attribution alleged · 2 sources, 1 underlying account · Added 20/10/2026
2025AustraliaChatGPT
The Victorian Curriculum and Assessment Authority (VCAA) said on 19 October 2026, as reported by The Age, that during the 2025 VCE exams a student smuggled a smartphone into an exam, uploaded exam questions to ChatGPT and attempted to pass off the AI-generated answers as their own before an exam supervisor caught them. According to the authority, the student admitted the breaches and had their marks reduced after a review. The student was one of 109 students the VCAA investigated for cheating in the 2025 VCE exams, up from 87 in 2024. The report does not identify the student, the school, the subject or the size of the reduction. The account is the exam authority's, relayed by one outlet.
Core concern Low reported severity Internal Action
AI involvement reported · Causal attribution supported · 1 source · Added 20/10/2026
Event date unknownEvent location unknownUnidentified image tool
Krefeld police reported on 29 April 2026 that unknown fraudsters obtained a four-figure sum from an older man through a dating app. Over several weeks he exchanged messages, first in the app and then on WhatsApp, with a supposed woman presented as a journalist in Lebanon who would soon return to Germany. He became suspicious at a last request for money for medical care after an alleged road accident and coma, and went to the police. According to the police's first findings, the photos of the supposed woman were AI-generated, including one showing her injured in a hospital bed. The money was paid with prepaid voucher codes.
Core concern Medium reported severity Investigation Opened
AI involvement reported · Causal attribution alleged · 1 source · Added 19/10/2026
Event date unknownNetherlandsUnidentified image tool
Dutch police said on 4 September 2025 that they had arrested a man in a Gelderland municipality the day before on suspicion of making sexually explicit deepfakes, which they call deepnudes, and spreading them through channels such as WhatsApp groups, and of sending women unsolicited photos of his genitals and sexual messages. According to the police, 130 victims from across the country reported to them over recent years and were regularly and repeatedly harassed; NOS reports, citing the police, that images were manipulated for some of them, that the exact number is unclear, and that the police suspect the conduct began in 2021 or 2022. The police seized digital data carriers and said the Public Prosecution Service would decide on the consequences. No tool is named.
Core concern High reported severity Investigation Opened
AI involvement reported · Causal attribution alleged · 2 sources, 1 underlying account · Added 19/10/2026
Event date unknownEvent location unknownUnidentified video tool
Mainz police reported on 23 July 2026 that a man who had met a supposed woman on an online platform refused repeated demands to send money as gift or payment cards. He then received a video that, according to the police, was evidently created with artificial intelligence: a fake news broadcast that used a picture of his face to warn about him. The sender threatened to publish the video and to report him to the police for an alleged fraud unless he paid. The man did not pay and filed a complaint; the police say no financial loss occurred and, as far as known, the video was not published. Hit Radio FFH, citing a police spokeswoman, reports that the broadcast warned women that he was a fraudster.
Core concern Low reported severity Investigation Opened
AI involvement reported · Causal attribution alleged · 3 sources, 1 underlying account · Added 19/10/2026
16 Feb 2026Event location unknownYuanbao
A lawyer told Huashang Daily that on the evening of Chinese New Year's Eve 2026 he uploaded his photo to Tencent's Yuanbao app and asked it, over about five instructions, to design a New Year greeting image suited to his profession. He said he used no banned or leading words. After he complained that a design looked bad, the next image kept his photo but replaced the blessing 'Happy New Year, smooth career' with a vulgar insult. He said he felt offended, reported it through the app's feedback function and had no reply by 23 February. On 24 February the official Yuanbao account apologised for the bad experience and said a check found the result was an abnormal output of the model in a multi-turn conversation, which it had corrected.
Core concern Low reported severity Internal Action
AI involvement supported · Causal attribution supported · 2 sources · Added 19/10/2026