Apr 2025Event location unknownUnidentified video tool
RTL Info (Belgium) reported on 3 October 2025 that in April a woman, identified only by first name, came across an online video in which the King of the Belgians appeared to promote a platform called AQ Trade AI, offering AI-based investments from €250. The video was a deepfake. After a phone call with a supposed adviser, the viewer paid €250. That night the viewer grew suspicious and called the bank, which immediately blocked the card. The report does not say whether the €250 was recovered. RTL Info ran the account alongside a Belgian authorities' awareness campaign on fake online investment offers.
Core concern Low reported severity Media Coverage
AI involvement reported · Causal attribution alleged · 1 source · Added 04/10/2026
Event date unknownBrazilUnidentified video tool
Three Mato Grosso do Sul outlets, all crediting BNC Notícias, reported on 10 April 2026 that a rural producer from Paraíso das Águas fell for the so-called Viva Sorte scam. In a video call, scammers used AI deepfake technology to simulate the image and voice of Renato Ambrósio, the presenter of the Viva Sorte prize draws, told the farmer a prize had been won and set out steps to release it: Pix transfers, sending the CPF tax number and sharing the phone screen while the banking app was open. The farmer followed the instructions and took out a R$360,000 loan; with interest, the total loss exceeded R$700,000. One report says the farmer gave this account to the police. The farmer is not identified, no date is given and no arrest is reported.
Core concern Medium reported severity Media Coverage
AI involvement reported · Causal attribution alleged · 3 sources, 1 underlying account · Added 04/10/2026
Event date unknownIndonesiaUnidentified voice-cloning tool
Malang Post reported on 2 October 2026 that the head of the Malang office of Indonesia's Financial Services Authority (OJK), speaking on a Radio City Guide FM talk show that day, described the latest case to befall a resident of Malang. According to the report, the perpetrator used AI to clone the voice of the victim's close friend very precisely and called the victim from a new number to ask for a money transfer; the victim believed the voice and lost Rp80 million. No date, police report or arrest is given. The account is the OJK official's as reported by one outlet; the call was not heard and the victim is not identified.
Core concern Low reported severity Media Coverage
AI involvement reported · Causal attribution alleged · 1 source · Added 03/10/2026
2022TaiwanUnidentified voice-cloning tool
According to the Taipei District Prosecutors Office and Taiwan's Criminal Investigation Bureau, as reported by the Liberty Times and Public Television Service (PTS) on 2 September 2026, a fraud ring set up in 2022 by a married couple ran fake romances on dating platforms. An engineer in the ring built AI voice-changing software that loaded the voiceprints of 22 women working for the ring as hostesses into its chat system, so that any member, male staff and older women included, spoke to targets in a sweet young woman's voice. Members pressed the people they courted to buy expensive health supplements and gifts and to pay pocket money, moving costs and beauty courses, and the ring sent hostesses to meet some targets, in some cases for sex, to keep them paying. Prosecutors put the victims at more than 20,000 and the proceeds at more than NT$900 million since 2022, and say many victims are still living in debt. After searches in May and July 2026, the Taipei District Prosecutors Office indicted 57 defendants on 2 September 2026 under the Fraud Crime Hazard Prevention Act and asked for sentences of 25 and 18 years for the couple.
Core concern High reported severity Criminal Charges
AI involvement reported · Causal attribution alleged · 2 sources, 1 underlying account · Added 02/10/2026
Event date unknownSpainUnidentified video tool
Spain's Policía Nacional said on 11 August 2026 that it had arrested in Murcia a suspect who tried to obtain electronic signature certificates in other people's names from a company that issues them. During the company's video identity checks the suspect appeared on camera holding a forged DNI identity card while AI software modified the suspect's face in real time to match the photo on the forged document. Police say the suspect made 38 attempts using the identities of more than 30 real citizens and succeeded in impersonating multiple victims, aiming to use the signatures for later scams. A short processing delay in the face-modification software made the digital mask disappear for barely a second, exposing the suspect's real face to the issuer's security staff.
Core concern Medium reported severity Investigation Opened
AI involvement reported · Causal attribution alleged · 3 sources, 1 underlying account · Added 02/10/2026
Aug 2026Event location unknownUnidentified OpenAI and Google image tools (reported)
From August 2026, posts on X linked to a fake page imitating the newspaper O Globo, and a Facebook version repeated the story. The page reported an attack on businessman Luciano Hang, founder of the Havan stores, and directed readers to a supposed investment platform promising R$3,000 to R$10,000 a day. The fact-checkers Lupa and Comprova found that no attack happened. Lupa reports that an OpenAI verification tool found a watermark indicating OpenAI image generation in the montage on the page; Comprova reports that SynthID indicated that the images it analysed, showing Hang injured, were made with Google's AI tool. Hang said in a note that criminals use his image, including AI manipulations, to promote fake investments. São Paulo's regional electoral court ordered X to remove posts falsely linking candidate Fernando Haddad to the fake attack. No investor loss is reported.
Core concern Low reported severity Media Coverage
AI involvement reported · Causal attribution supported · 6 sources, 3 underlying accounts · Added 02/10/2026
Mar 2026IndiaUnidentified image tool
A PhD scholar in Chandigarh told police that in March 2026 she found a man's profile on a matrimonial site showing him in uniform, and that he presented himself at different times as an excise assistant commissioner, an IPS officer and a RAW agent. Dainik Bhaskar reported on 29 September 2026 that the police investigation found the IPS uniform photo on the profile was not real and had been made with the help of AI; no officer is quoted on this, and the other reports read do not mention AI. According to her complaint, he took about Rs 11.5 lakh in cash, gold jewellery and a laptop with promises of marriage and a government job; the Tribune adds about Rs 7.88 lakh in online transfers between March and June, and police put the total at about Rs 30 lakh. Bhaskar reports that he had a bank account opened in her name with her documents and kept its passbook, ATM card and SIM card until the bank froze it over suspicious transactions. When she asked for her money and belongings back, he threatened to circulate her photographs on social media; the Tribune adds a threat of harm to her brother. A case was registered in August. Police arrested a man from Rohtak, Haryana, who was produced in court on Monday 28 September 2026 and remanded for one day.
Core concern Medium reported severity Criminal Charges
AI involvement reported · Causal attribution alleged · 5 sources, 1 underlying account · Added 02/10/2026
Feb 2026Event location unknownUnidentified video tool
On 23 February 2026 the Minuto de Dios organisation issued a public alert that ads circulating on social networks used the name, image and AI-manipulated videos of its president, the priest Diego Jaramillo Cuartas, with a voice that is not his, to make it appear that he recommended or sold health formulas. In a video published on the organisation's channels, Jaramillo said his image was being used as if he were a collagen seller and that this was totally false. The organisation called the ads deceptive advertising and said it was seeking their removal and reporting the facts to the authorities. No report says whether anyone bought the products.
Core concern Low reported severity Media Coverage
AI involvement reported · Causal attribution supported · 4 sources, 1 underlying account · Added 02/10/2026
Event date unknownItalyUnidentified image tool
Corriere Adriatico reported on 1 October 2026 that a 66-year-old pensioner in Fano answered his landline to a caller posing as a police inspector, who said his car was involved in a jewellery-shop robbery and that he had to check his jewellery at home to avoid legal trouble. The call moved to a video call in which the caller had the Polizia di Stato emblem on screen, which the paper says was created with artificial intelligence. The man showed his gold jewellery piece by piece; while he was kept on the phone, an accomplice came to the door and took all of it, reportedly worth a few thousand euros. He realised it was a scam shortly afterwards and alerted the Carabinieri, who are investigating.
Core concern Medium reported severity Investigation Opened
AI involvement reported · Causal attribution alleged · 1 source · Added 01/10/2026
Event date unknownEvent location unknownUnidentified video tool
El Mirón, the verification section of Criterio.hn, reported on 30 September 2026 that it found three videos on a Facebook profile, altered in image and audio, that use the image of the plastic and reconstructive surgeon Emec Cherenfant to offer a remedy for prostatitis and related problems. In the videos his artificial image says he helped former footballers beat prostatitis without surgery and invites viewers to write to him on WhatsApp. El Mirón says the manipulation is evident from the vocabulary, voice and body movements and that the detector ZeroGPT flagged the videos as AI-made. The hospital where he offers his services told El Mirón the advertising is deceptive. Cherenfant said he has nothing to do with prostate treatment, that scammers repeatedly use his name and image, and that he filed a complaint with the Ministerio Público two years ago. 'Son estafadores. No se dejen engañar, es pura inteligencia artificial', he said. No buyer losses are reported.
Core concern Low reported severity Media Coverage
AI involvement reported · Causal attribution alleged · 1 source · Added 01/10/2026
Event date unknownEvent location unknownUnidentified video tool
Dr. François Marquis, chief of intensive care at Maisonneuve-Rosemont Hospital in Montreal, told CBC News (August 2025) and CTV News and CBC News (September 2026) that AI-generated deepfake videos using his likeness keep appearing on Facebook, selling joint supplements, pills and cancer cures and spreading anti-pharmaceutical claims; the latest offers $1 million to dissatisfied customers. He is not on social media and learns of the videos from people who call him. He recounts that a person who paid hundreds of dollars for pills advertised in one of the videos, and never received them, came into the ICU demanding his money back, which he describes as a security problem for the hospital. He has reported the deepfakes to Quebec's College of Physicians, Montreal police and the platforms, but says new videos keep appearing. The makers of the ads are not identified.
Core concern Low reported severity Media Coverage
AI involvement reported · Causal attribution alleged · 3 sources, 1 underlying account · Added 01/10/2026
20 Jul 2026BangladeshUnidentified voice-cloning tool
According to a press release from Special Response Battalion-13 (SRB-13), relayed by Ajker Patrika, DBC News and NTV, on 20 July 2026 a man who works at the Natore Sadar upazila health complex received a call saying that his younger son had been arrested by police with drugs. The callers then used AI to imitate the son's voice so that the father believed the story, and demanded money to get the son released. He sent a total of Tk 40,000 in two payments through the mobile financial service Nagad, and realised it was a fraud when he reached his son directly. He filed a fraud case at Natore Sadar police station on 25 September 2026. That evening SRB-13 arrested two men, described as the ring's leader and an associate, at their homes in Gobindaganj, Gaibandha, seizing nine mobile phones, a passport and Tk 14,100 in cash; SRB says they admitted involvement during initial questioning and handed them to the police for further legal action, and NTV reports they were sent to Gaibandha district jail through the court on 26 September.
Core concern Low reported severity Criminal Charges
AI involvement reported · Causal attribution alleged · 3 sources, 1 underlying account · Added 01/10/2026
Event date unknownAustraliaUnidentified voice-cloning tool
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.
Core concern Medium reported severity Media Coverage
AI involvement reported · Causal attribution alleged · 3 sources, 1 underlying account · Added 01/10/2026
Event date unknownEvent location unknownUnidentified image and video tool
The BBC (29 September 2026) reports, from an interview with her daughter for Radio 4's Scam Secrets, that an 80-year-old woman fell for a man she met on Facebook. The scammers used AI to change their appearance in photos and video calls. She posted £10,000 in cash hidden in a hollowed-out book to a Shanghai hospital where he supposedly awaited an operation; later, in the BBC's words, a new man came on the scene who had been kidnapped and would be killed if she did not pay a ransom. In total, the BBC says, she sent £140,000 to the scammers; her bank has returned £45,000. Her daughter spotted the deepfake on a video call, but the woman did not believe her and said her daughter made her feel disgusted and ashamed. The daughter, who holds a lasting power of attorney, set up safeguards with the bank, changed her mother's number three times (each new number reached the scammers) and eventually replaced her smartphone. The BBC does not say whether a ransom was paid.
Core concern Medium reported severity Media Coverage
AI involvement reported · Causal attribution alleged · 1 source · Added 01/10/2026
Event date unknownItalyUnidentified video tool
CentroPagina reported on 28 September 2026 that on two separate occasions in Fano and Fossombrone (Marche), fraudsters used a video call modified with artificial intelligence, showing a face and the Carabinieri emblem on screen. A 70-year-old man in Fano was told by a caller posing as a Carabinieri officer that his car was involved in a jewellery-shop robbery and that he had to show his gold to clear himself. On the video call he showed his jewellery one piece at a time; while he was kept on the phone, an accomplice came to the door and took gold jewellery and cash, reportedly a few thousand euros. An 80-year-old man in Fossombrone was targeted the same way and lost jewellery worth a few thousand euros; he did not make the two online transfers totalling 15,000 euros that the fraudsters then demanded as bail. The victims alerted the Carabinieri, who are seeking those responsible.
Core concern Medium reported severity Investigation Opened
AI involvement reported · Causal attribution alleged · 1 source · Added 01/10/2026
Sept 2026Event location unknownUnidentified voice-cloning tool
Samuel Sarmiento, a former lead singer of Banda Los Recoditos, announced his mother's death on social media in late September 2026. Hours later he posted a video on his official Instagram account warning that people were circulating fake videos using his voice, cloned with AI, in which he appeared to ask for money to cover her funeral costs. 'No se vale que haya gente tan ruin que ande pidiendo dinero con mi voz, con IA, para el sepelio de mi madre', he said, adding that he was not asking anyone for money. La Razón, Récord, La Mejor and El Diario de Sonora relayed his video on 30 September 2026. No report says whether anyone paid, and no police complaint is reported.
Core concern Low reported severity Media Coverage
AI involvement reported · Causal attribution supported · 4 sources, 1 underlying account · Added 01/10/2026
Event date unknownEvent location unknownUnidentified video tool
Terra reported on 6 December 2023 that the team of the actor Tony Ramos, then appearing in the telenovela 'Terra e Paixão', had warned that an interview he gave to Ana Maria Braga's programme 'Mais Você' was digitally altered to promote a supposedly miraculous remedy for prostate hyperplasia. According to the team, his words were edited with advanced technology to make it seem he endorsed the product, his voice was redubbed, and the original footage was a tribute to fellow professionals. Terra describes the clips as fake videos created with artificial intelligence. On the TV programme 'Roda Viva' on 28 September 2026, Ramos said his image had been stolen from that interview, badly dubbed and made to sell a prostate medicine (Estado de Minas, 29 September 2026), and Estado de Minas describes the clip as a deepfake that circulated on social networks. No buyer losses, complaint or takedown are reported.
Core concern Low reported severity Media Coverage
AI involvement reported · Causal attribution supported · 2 sources · Added 01/10/2026
Sept 2026Event location unknownUnidentified video tool (suspected)
Bettina Tietjen, host of the 'NDR Talk Show', wrote in a Facebook post on Tuesday 29 September 2026 that videos were apparently circulating in which she advertised a remedy for Alzheimer's. 'Das sind Fake-Videos, dahinter stecken Betrüger', she wrote, asking people not to fall for them. The spot on news agency (via Abendzeitung München) reports that she has nothing to do with the advertised product. MOPO describes the clips as fake AI videos, and spot on news and TAG24 say they are apparently deepfakes made or altered with artificial intelligence. No report says whether anyone bought the product, and no complaint or takedown is reported.
Core concern Low reported severity Media Coverage
AI involvement suspected · Causal attribution supported · 3 sources, 1 underlying account · Added 01/10/2026
Event date unknownHong Kong SAR ChinaUnidentified image and video tool
Hong Kong police described a syndicate that used deepfake romantic personas to induce investments by people in Taiwan, Singapore and Malaysia. SCMP reported alleged criminal proceeds exceeding HK$34 million and a January 2025 operation arresting thirty-one suspects. An official police budget reply separately identifies that January operation and the amount involved. The Standard reported on 10 February 2026 that police had charged nine more suspects, bringing the number prosecuted to 14, all for conspiracy to defraud and four also for dealing with property known or believed to represent proceeds of an indictable offence. No verdict or sentence is reported in the sources read. The first scam date, number of affected people and individual loss allocations are unknown. A different October 2024 operation involving twenty-seven arrests is kept separate.
Core concern Medium reported severity Criminal Charges
AI involvement reported · Causal attribution alleged · 4 sources, 1 underlying account · Added 30/09/2026
Event date unknownEvent location unknownUnidentified image tool
Bitcoin security adviser Terence Michael wrote on X on 14 December 2025 that a client who had recently reached one bitcoin had lost all of it to a 'pig butchering' romance and trading scam. A screenshot attached to the post shows the client telling the adviser that the woman he had been talking with did not exist, that he had paid for a ticket to meet her and her family on 26 December, and that his retirement funds and family savings were gone. The screenshot also shows the scammer's message to the client saying that this was not real, that she was not the person in the pictures, that the pictures were AI and other people's pictures, and that no funds could be withdrawn. BitDegree (15 December 2025) and a Cointelegraph explainer (31 December 2025) relay the adviser's account; the adviser said he had tried several times to stop the transfers. The client's identity and location, the scam's start date and the tools used are unknown. The Cointelegraph explainer's description of live deepfake video calls does not appear in the adviser's post and is not established.
Core concern Medium reported severity
AI involvement reported · Causal attribution alleged · 3 sources, 1 underlying account · Added 30/09/2026