Event date unknownCanadaUnidentified video tool
A report relaying W5's investigation describes a Prince Edward Island man who lost C$600,000 after an online video falsely presented a cryptocurrency investment as associated with Dragon's Den. The report identifies the two Canadian accounts as deepfake scams. He reportedly increased his payments while being shown fake profits and could not withdraw the funds. His first contact date and the specific generation method are unknown.
Core concern High reported severity
AI involvement reported · Causal attribution alleged · 1 source · Added 30/09/2026
Event date unknownUnited StatesUnidentified video tool
A Leesburg man told WKMG that he lost nearly $45,000 after a purported Elon Musk giveaway and subsequent investment offers. He described personalised video messages, payments, depleted accounts and maxed-out credit cards. The outlet presents the case in its AI deepfake investigation. He also said his wife wanted a divorce because of the scam; no completed divorce or loss of his home is established.
Core concern Medium reported severity
AI involvement reported · Causal attribution alleged · 1 source · Added 30/09/2026
25 Feb 2025 to 23 Apr 2025IndiaUnidentified video tool
Bengaluru police said a retired woman lost about Rs 3.75 crore after encountering a purported AI-generated video of Sadhguru promoting investments. The Indian Express reports that the contact and transfers took place from 25 February to 23 April 2025. According to the reported FIR, the video led to a trading platform and subsequent contact with scammers, who showed apparent profits. The woman realised the problem when withdrawal attempts prompted further payment demands. Police were attempting to freeze accounts, while warning recovery would be difficult.
Core concern High reported severity
AI involvement reported · Causal attribution alleged · 2 sources, 1 underlying account · Added 30/09/2026
Event date unknownUnited StatesUnidentified voice-cloning tool
A Chicago-area man told ABC7 that he sent $10,000 in cryptocurrency to someone posing as Elon Musk. The outlet reports that the scammer used AI-assembled voice messages using Musk's voice, alongside social media messages, apparent investment returns and a promised vehicle. The man said he could not retrieve the money after several months and was struggling to pay ordinary bills. The beginning of the contact and the technical creation of the messages remain unknown.
Core concern Medium reported severity
AI involvement reported · Causal attribution alleged · 1 source · Added 30/09/2026
May 2026United StatesUnidentified voice-cloning tool (suspected)
ABC7 (KGO-TV, 24 May 2026) and ABC News (a Good Morning America segment, 26 May 2026) reported that a Bay Area woman received a call from an unknown number in May 2026. The caller said the woman's adult daughter had been kidnapped by a Mexican drug cartel and played a voice the woman believed was the daughter's, in panic. The woman followed the caller's instructions for about five hours, feared for the daughter's life and wired $5,400 to Mexico. The woman then phoned the daughter, who said the daughter was at work, and realized the call was a scam. ABC7 states that scammers used artificial intelligence to mimic the daughter's voice, and ABC News describes AI as what the woman suspects was used. Neither outlet reports an analysis of the audio or a police finding about a cloned voice. An Operation Shamrock representative quoted by both outlets spoke of voice cloning in general terms and not about this call. ABC7 reports that Martinez police said they are investigating, and the woman said the money is not expected to be recovered. Both outlets rest on the woman's own account. The woman is described by role and the daughter is not named.
Core concern Medium reported severity
AI involvement suspected · Causal attribution alleged · 2 sources, 1 underlying account · Added 30/09/2026
23 Mar 2026 to 24 Mar 2026United StatesUnidentified voice-cloning tool
The Spokesman-Review (8 May 2026) reported that a 75-year-old man in Washington state took a call on Monday 23 March in which a crying voice presented as the man's adult daughter said an accident had happened and asked for help. Male voices then described a collision and said the daughter had been taken hostage. The newspaper states that the daughter's voice on the call was an AI-generated copy and that investigators later surmised the callers used a recording of the daughter's voice with a program that mimicked the speech pattern. Over about 30 hours the callers directed the man to banks and stores in Washington and Idaho, where $13,000 was wired. The man was about to withdraw $17,000 when a bank employee stalled and police were alerted, and police then reached the daughter, who confirmed being at home and safe. The newspaper says none of the wired money had been recovered when the article was published. The man says it took days to start feeling normal again. The report rests on the man's account, a bank employee's account and a police report quoted by the newspaper. The article gives the call date as Monday 23 March without a year. The record uses 2026 because 23 March fell on a Monday only in 2026 among the years 2023 to 2026. The range starts at 2023 because the article says the Federal Trade Commission began warning about AI voice-copy scams as early as 2023, and it ends at 2026 because the article was published on 8 May 2026.
Core concern Medium reported severity
AI involvement reported · Causal attribution alleged · 2 sources, 1 underlying account · Added 30/09/2026
Jul 2026Hong Kong SAR ChinaUnidentified voice-cloning tool (suspected)
Hong Kong police said on their CyberDefender social media page, reported on 29 July 2026, that a victim received a WhatsApp voice message from the victim's father's hijacked account asking for an urgent transfer of HK$1 million to a friend. The voice and manner of speech were very similar to the father's, and the victim made the transfer, then a further HK$2 million requested the same way, then payments to several bank accounts on different pretexts, until the savings account was empty. The victim realised the fraud only after police made contact, with a reported total loss of more than HK$10 million. Police said scammers in WhatsApp hijackings may use AI to fake the voices of people close to the victim, and outlets that published reports on 30 and 31 August 2026 of a police briefing described the case as one involving a deepfake voice message imitating the father, while one outlet said the deepfake use was suspected. No source reports analysis of the audio. The loss and the voice characterisation rest on police statements relayed by outlets, and the month of July 2026 rests on one outlet.
Core concern High reported severity
AI involvement suspected · Causal attribution alleged · 7 sources, 1 underlying account · Added 30/09/2026
Event date unknownEvent location unknownUnidentified video tool
AFP reported on 3 July 2026 that a Filipino domestic worker, who asked that a real name and age be withheld, met a scammer posing as a Dubai prince on a dating site and then took part in WhatsApp video calls in which the scammer appeared on screen as the prince. AFP described the suitor as an AI deepfake, said it saw a recording of one call in which the voice did not match the prince's voice, and said it was unclear which AI tools were used. The worker paid 100,000 pesos (about US$1,625) for a supposed marriage certificate and 'royal membership card' that would help secure a job in Dubai, and AFP said the worker lost a year's worth of savings. When the scammer then asked for a further 60,000 pesos for a hotel booking, the worker became suspicious, noticed that the Facebook account was based in Nigeria, and ended contact. The account rests on one AFP interview carried by other outlets. The dates of the events are not stated.
Core concern Medium reported severity
AI involvement reported · Causal attribution alleged · 3 sources, 1 underlying account · Added 30/09/2026
Event date unknownEvent location unknownUnidentified image and video tool
The Daily Echo (29 June 2025), the Daily Mail (1 July 2025), and The Sun and the New York Post (2 July 2025) reported that a Southampton resident said the resident had been 'relentlessly' sent AI-generated or doctored celebrity images and videos on Facebook for about five months, with a fake prize certificate and requests for an activation fee to unlock a prize of £500,000 and a car. The resident said one persona presented as a celebrity said she loved the resident and asked for money, and that the resident paid £200 in Apple gift cards. The resident also said the messages were affecting the resident's mental health and said an acquaintance had lost over £1,000 to the same kind of scam (second-hand, not counted here). A University of Southampton AI expert described the messages as a phishing scam using an AI-generated prize certificate. All outlets rest on the resident's own account, and none reports verifying the messages. The start date is not established.
Core concern Low reported severity
AI involvement reported · Causal attribution alleged · 4 sources, 1 underlying account · Added 29/09/2026
Mar 2025Event location unknownUnidentified video tool
Economist David Rosenberg told The Globe and Mail (18 June 2025) that ads on Facebook and Instagram since March 2025 promoted a fake investment program listing him as its administrator and redirected people to a WhatsApp group. The Globe reported that one investor interviewed estimated losing $16,000, another said she lost $500,000 in a week, and a third alleged losing $450,000 in life savings. Rosenberg told BNN Bloomberg on 7 July 2025 that the scammers used a fake AI voice and video of him, and a Globe column of 17 July 2025 described a deepfake video advert. Losses are self-reported and unverified. The AI characterisation comes from Rosenberg and a July Globe column, and the June Globe article on the investors does not mention AI. A Toronto police detective said no victim had reported to police.
Core concern Medium reported severity
AI involvement reported · Causal attribution alleged · 4 sources, 3 underlying accounts · Added 29/09/2026
Event date unknownEvent location unknownUnidentified voice-cloning tool (suspected)
In a 4 February 2025 report by Hi-Line Today, the owner of a game and coffee store in a Havre shopping mall said an employee received a call on a personal phone that appeared to come from the employee's own number and carried what the employee described as the owner's voice. The owner said the scammers had also duplicated the owner's number. The article says the store reported that the scam compromised bank details and caused monetary losses; the owner said the employee was not blamed. The reporter describes the scam as using AI voice replication. The only support for a cloned voice is the employee's claim, relayed by the owner.
Core concern Low reported severity
AI involvement suspected · Causal attribution alleged · 1 source · Added 29/09/2026
2025United StatesUnidentified website tool
A retired couple in Gwinnett County, Georgia, told FOX 5 Atlanta and the Atlanta Journal-Constitution in June 2025 that they had lost about $800,000 ($802,000 per the AJC), their life savings, in a cryptocurrency scam that began when a stranger contacted the husband on WhatsApp and encouraged him to trade through a mobile app. He traded and withdrew small amounts before investing more, and discovered the fraud when he could not withdraw and called 911. According to FOX 5, Gwinnett County police explained that the app was real but the scammers had created an AI-generated "ghost site" that manipulated what he saw on the screen; the husband said police identified that what he was seeing on the wallet was not there. The 74-year-old said he felt sick and ashamed; the couple's children started a fundraiser for day-to-day expenses, and police said such funds are rarely recovered. The tool is not described; the AI element appears in no independently reported source (a Cobb County government page of January 2026 repeats FOX 5's summary, and the AJC's legible text does not mention AI).
Core concern High reported severity Investigation Opened
AI involvement reported · Causal attribution alleged · 2 sources · Added 29/09/2026
Feb 2022 to Mar 2026United StatesGoogle AI Overviews (reported)
Federal prosecutors in Oregon have charged two men with wire fraud and conspiracy over an alleged romance-investment scheme run from at least February 2022 until at least March 2026. The FBI affidavit says investigators have identified 26 women they believe are victims, whom the two 'defrauded or attempted to defraud'; elsewhere it says all 26 sent money 'believing the money was being invested on their behalf'. Twelve of the thirteen victim accounts in the affidavit describe money sent or loaned, and one says she did not invest. The Los Angeles Times, citing the U.S. Attorney's Office, reports at least 26 women and $1.3 million across four states. With some victims, the main accused posed as a San Francisco 49ers player. The affidavit says that some victims became suspicious and searched for him online, and that because of his false social media posts, 'search engines and artificial intelligence occasionally stated' that he was a bona fide 49ers player. The Los Angeles Times describes an Instagram Story in which he displayed a screenshot of a Google AI Overview calling him a 49ers wide receiver and said, 'That's Google. That's not me, that's Google.' The 49ers and the NFL told investigators he was never employed by either. The charges are allegations; the sources do not say how many victims saw an AI-generated answer or how much it weighed in their decisions.
Core concern Medium reported severity Criminal Charges
AI involvement reported · Causal attribution alleged · 3 sources, 2 underlying accounts · Added 29/09/2026
Event date unknownBrazilUnidentified facial recognition system
The Espírito Santo Civil Police (Defa, the fraud and forgery unit) said a 27-year-old man was arrested on a warrant in Serra on 22 September 2026, suspected of defrauding a personal trainer of more than R$100,000. According to the police, the suspect offered a car in exchange for the victim's motorcycle; during the negotiation he persuaded the victim to perform a facial-recognition procedure, saying it was needed to transfer the car's ownership; the biometric was later used to contract a vehicle financing in the victim's name without his authorisation, and weeks after the exchange the victim discovered that the car he had received did not belong to the suspect and was a rental. The loss, combining the motorcycle and the fraudulently contracted financing, exceeded R$100,000. The suspect, who police say had been arrested in São Paulo in July 2025 in a 'love scam' case, was taken to the Centro de Triagem at the Rodrigo Figueiredo da Rosa prison complex and remains at the disposal of the courts. The financing provider and the facial-recognition system are not identified, and the reports do not say how the captured biometric was used to pass the financing.
Contextual tracker case Medium reported severity Criminal Charges
AI involvement reported · Causal attribution alleged · 4 sources, 1 underlying account · Added 26/09/2026
Nov 2024SpainUnidentified image and video tool
A feature carried by Levante-EMV on 25 September 2025 (byline C. Suena, sourced from Diario Información, photographs EFE/Morell) tells the story of a 78-year-old widower and pensioner living in Alicante who, after his wife's death in 2022 and two years of treatment for depression, was advised by his therapists to socialise and explore social networks. On 11 November 2024 he received an email from a woman presenting herself as a 43-year-old doctor in Kazakhstan seeking a serious relationship; with photographs and videos that were in fact created by artificial intelligence she won his trust, and a friend who warned him was rebuffed. Requests for money followed: 2,000 euros for a plane ticket, another 2,000 for unexpected expenses, then a supposed 10,000-euro deposit demanded by the Kazakh government; he never raised that sum in full but sent 8,800 euros in total, part of it from the sale of his flat in Benidorm. On his way to Madrid airport to meet her he received a final email saying she had been detained for carrying a family icon out of the country and needed a fine paid; he went to the National Police, who confirmed a scam: the images and videos were fake, created with AI, and the woman had never existed. He lost all his savings in about three months and now shares a flat with three other pensioners in Alicante; he told his story so that others would not fall into the same trap. A separate Antena 3 Noticias interview of 24 September 2025 dates the first message to 29 November 2024, itemises the 8,800 euros differently, says a television programme he contacted exposed the deception and that he reported it at a police station, and adds that he had to leave his rented flat and was left with a 1,000-euro monthly pension; he told Antena 3 the scam affected him psychologically but that he has overcome it.
Core concern Medium reported severity Media Coverage
AI involvement reported · Causal attribution supported · 2 sources · Added 23/09/2026
19 May 2026United StatesUnidentified voice-cloning tool (suspected)
A married couple in their sixties buying a US$460,000 condo in Hudsonville, near Grand Rapids, Michigan, received an email on 19 May 2026, days before closing, telling them to wire US$66,026.92 for the down payment and closing costs within 24 hours. The email listed a phone number differing from their loan officer's by two digits, and the husband then received a call confirming the instructions in a voice that sounded just like the loan officer. The couple borrowed from family and other sources and wired the money. The day before closing their real loan officer sent the actual statement; the closing was cancelled hours before signing and the money was gone. The husband now believes the call came from a spoofed number using AI-assisted voice cloning; Tyler Adams of CertifID, which is working with the couple and federal officials, said someone's email in the transaction was probably compromised and that the scammers likely cloned the loan officer's voice from social-media clips. The sender's address had two extra letters ('UnitedsMortgages' instead of 'UnitedMortgage'). Neither the lender nor the loan officer is accused of complicity. The couple later completed the purchase in early June from their mutual fund, reported the loss to the FBI's Internet Crime Complaint Center, and describe lasting apprehension and have discussed delaying retirement. CNN reported the case on 15 September 2026; the account the money went to has since closed.
Core concern Medium reported severity Investigation Opened
AI involvement suspected · Causal attribution alleged · 2 sources, 1 underlying account · Added 20/09/2026
1 Aug 2026 to 16 Sept 2026KazakhstanUnidentified video tool
On 16 September 2026 the Prosecutor General's Office of Kazakhstan warned of an investment-fraud scheme in which criminals advertise non-existent projects on TikTok, Instagram, YouTube and other platforms using deepfake videos of well-known people and fake 'AI' investment platforms promising very high passive income: 'Kaspi AI' with Mikhail Lomtadze, 'Quantum AI' with Elon Musk, 'TON' with Pavel Durov, and 'people's investments' in KazMunayGas or Gazprom fronted by news presenters from Khabar 24, KTK and Channel One. The office said 119 such cases had been registered across the country in the previous one and a half months. Its example: in September 2026 a woman from Taldykorgan saw an Instagram advertisement offering high returns from share trading, left her details through the link, was contacted by the fraudsters and, following their instructions, transferred more than 7 million tenge to third-party accounts; the money and supposed dividends appeared in a fake wallet that she could not withdraw from. A pre-trial investigation is under way. The office urged people not to trust guaranteed-return offers or transfer money to strangers.
Core concern Medium reported severity Investigation Opened
AI involvement reported · Causal attribution supported · 5 sources, 1 underlying account · Added 20/09/2026
May 2026SingaporeUnidentified video tool
In May 2026 the Singapore Police Force (SPF) reported that a man had lost at least S$4.9 million (about US$3.8 million) to a government-official impersonation scam. He received a WhatsApp message carrying the profile photo of Secretary to the Cabinet Wong Hong Kuan and an email from a proton.me address in that name, requesting urgent funding assistance for 'the situation in the Strait of Hormuz', with a fake 'letter of guarantee' bearing the Prime Minister's signature promising reimbursement within 15 business days; he signed a non-disclosure agreement and supplied a copy of his identity card. He was then invited to a Zoom video conference in which Prime Minister Lawrence Wong, President Tharman Shanmugaratnam, Minister Indranee Rajah, Monetary Authority of Singapore representatives and foreign officials appeared; all were fabricated with deepfake AI, and the closing 'remarks' by the fake Prime Minister acknowledged the victim's attendance. Contacted afterwards on WhatsApp by a scammer posing as a lawyer, he transferred the money in a series of transactions to a corporate bank account, and realised the fraud only when he contacted the real cabinet secretary. On 16 May the police released footage of the fake conference, noting lips out of sync with speech, audio broadcast from a single account and a distorted background.
Core concern High reported severity Investigation Opened
AI involvement supported · Causal attribution supported · 3 sources, 1 underlying account · Added 18/09/2026
Oct 2025United StatesUnidentified video tool
From around October 2025, criminals used AI to clone the image, voice, name, signature and firm logo of Ángel Leal, a long-established immigration attorney in Doral, Florida. They created fake videos, look-alike websites, forged contracts and even fabricated Zoom 'immigration hearings' to persuade immigrants to pay for legal services Leal never provided. Immigrants were defrauded of money, and some believed their cases were progressing when they were not; Leal received one to two defrauded callers a day, changed his phone number, hired an anti-piracy firm that removed thousands of fake profiles and videos, and reported the fraud to local police and federal authorities.
Core concern Medium reported severity Investigation Opened
AI involvement supported · Causal attribution supported · 4 sources · Added 17/09/2026
1 Jul 2026 to 14 Jul 2026BrazilUnidentified video tool
On 14 July 2026 the Rio Grande do Sul Civil Police launched Operação Sophia against a group that used AI voice cloning and deepfake to turn real fundraising campaigns of children with cancer into fake donation appeals: AI-generated child voices asked for money in videos boosted by pages such as 'Clube de Doadores' and 'Unidos pelo Amor', leading donors to lookalike sites that issued Pix codes to shell companies. Sixteen people were arrested across five states. In the campaign that started the investigation — using the image of Kelen Santos's daughter, who was in cancer treatment — police traced R$294,500 diverted, and the investigation found a financial-hub company that moved more than R$1.7 million. The family had to tell congratulating donors that their money had gone to a scam.
Core concern Medium reported severity Involving minors Criminal Charges
AI involvement supported · Causal attribution supported · 2 sources · Added 15/09/2026