May 2026ChinaUnidentified video tool (suspected)
In May 2026 a 50-year-old woman in Shanghai met a man on a matchmaking platform who said he was an army regiment commander about to retire and sent officer and identity card photos. He also made a video call on his own initiative, in which he quickly covered his face with his hand to show he was not using AI face-swap. He then steered her into a fake investment platform, and within about a month she put in 800,000 yuan, almost all of it borrowed, and could not withdraw it. A Pudong police anti-fraud officer said that AI synthesis could still be detected and that in her screenshot the man's thumb was clearly longer than a normal person's. The report gives no direct statement that face-swap software was used. The case was under further investigation.
Core concern Medium reported severity Investigation Opened
AI involvement suspected · Causal attribution alleged · 1 source · Added 04/10/2026
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
3 Oct 2026Event location unknownOpenAI Help Center assistant
In public posts to r/ChatGPT and r/OpenAI on 3 October 2026, a person says their ChatGPT Pro subscription renewed for $200 that day after they forgot to cancel, and that they cancelled auto-renewal and requested a refund in OpenAI's Help Center about six minutes after the charge. They say the Help Center's AI assistant declined without giving a reason specific to their account, and that when they asked for escalation the chat showed that the case was closed. A second chat asking specifically for a human billing specialist produced the same refusal, they write, and two email requests, one with five redacted screenshots, received replies marked as generated with AI support. The poster acknowledges that OpenAI's seven-day refund policy is discretionary and conditional, and says the unresolved problem is that they received no case-specific explanation and no confirmed human review. OpenAI's handling is described only by the poster, and the account is uncorroborated.
Core + contextual relations Low reported severity
AI involvement reported · Causal attribution alleged · 2 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
13 Jan 2026IndiaUnidentified image tool
Jhansi police arrested a 27-year-old woman in Prayagraj in September 2026 on charges of editing photos with AI, blackmail and extortion, after the wife of a senior railway officer living in Jhansi filed an FIR on 2 August 2026. According to the complaint as relayed by Aaj Tak, UP Tak, Dainik Bhaskar and Amar Ujala, the woman threatened to circulate objectionable pictures of women in the family, demanded ₹15 lakh and threatened to kill the family, and out of fear the family paid her ₹40,000 in total on different dates between January and June 2026. On 31 July she sent an objectionable image of the officer to his wife's phone, an image police say she made with AI. Aaj Tak places the ₹15 lakh demand after that image; Dainik Bhaskar reports the complaint as dating the demand and a death threat to the woman's visit to the family's government house on 2 June. Police recovered two phones and a laptop, and Amar Ujala reports that police will have the images examined forensically. On 1 October 2026 an Additional Sessions Judge in Jhansi rejected the woman's bail plea. In police custody after her arrest she said the FIR against her was fake. The images were not inspected.
Core concern Medium reported severity Criminal Charges
AI involvement reported · Causal attribution alleged · 6 sources, 2 underlying accounts · 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 unknownEgyptUnidentified image tool
According to an Interior Ministry statement relayed by Soralive, Shbabbek and Egypt Telegraph on 30 September and 1 October 2026, Egypt's cybercrime and morals police arrested an unemployed man living in the Zagazig Second police district of Sharqia governorate. Investigators say he ran social media pages that presented him as a young woman offering paid sexual services. In the ministry's account he admitted collecting photos of young women posted on social media and altering them with AI apps to make them look alluring, then reposting them on his pages to draw in customers. He asked those who replied to transfer advance payments through mobile wallets as a deposit, then blocked them and switched off his phones once the money arrived. Two phones seized from him held chats and other evidence of the activity, and the public prosecution took over the investigation. The reports do not give the number of people deceived, the amounts taken or the number of women whose photos were used.
Core concern Low reported severity Investigation Opened
AI involvement reported · Causal attribution alleged · 3 sources, 1 underlying account · 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
Event date unknownIndiaUnidentified image and video tool
Nai Dunia reported on 1 October 2026 that police in Neemuch City, Madhya Pradesh, had registered a case against a man from Shahjahanpur district, Uttar Pradesh, who is a relative of a local woman through her own family (the complainant husband's in-laws' side). According to the complaint filed by her husband, the man used AI to edit photos and videos of the woman into obscene, objectionable material, sent them to her phone and blackmailed her. When she resisted he threatened to kill her husband and two children, and he threatened to spread the material to shame her socially and within the family. Over about seven to eight months, the complaint says, he sent QR codes of 20 to 25 different people to her phone and extracted roughly ₹50 lakh in 50 to 60 payments, which she sent through a neighbour and other women. The man had lived in the family's home and worked at the husband's business for about six months two to two and a half years earlier, which the complainant says gave him knowledge of the family's income and property. Nai Dunia reported that police were investigating and trying to arrest the accused. The account is the complainant's as reported by one newspaper; the images were not inspected.
Core concern High reported severity Investigation Opened
AI involvement reported · Causal attribution alleged · 1 source · Added 02/10/2026
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
Jul 2026ChinaUnidentified AI voice-calling system
According to police in Yueqing, Zhejiang, as reported by CCTV's Fazhi Zaixian programme on 29 September 2026, a man in Yueqing who wanted to borrow money for his child's summer tuition in July 2026 received a call from a supposed loan-platform agent who knew his borrowing history. Guided by the agent, he took out a 15,500-yuan loan on a legitimate platform and then transferred 5,500 yuan as a supposed 'funder's advance' and 10,000 yuan for supposed repayment, losing the whole amount. His report led police to a call centre in an office building in Changsha, Hunan. Police say the ring paid for accounts on an AI platform, loaded illegally obtained phone numbers, and let an AI voice system call people automatically with recorded scripts that responded to keywords, sorting them into six categories and transferring interested people to human operators; another victim said he had not realised the voice was a robot until police told him. Police say the ring defrauded more than a thousand people in two months, with victims including recent graduates and middle-aged and older people. CCTV reported 30 suspects detained on suspicion of fraud, more than 1 million yuan frozen and transactions above 10 million yuan. On 12 October 2026 Wenzhou News, reporting the same Yueqing police case, gave a cumulative total of more than 90 people detained, with the same frozen-funds and transaction figures.
Core concern Medium reported severity Investigation Opened
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
29 Jul 2026 to 1 Sept 2026BangladeshUnidentified voice-cloning tool
Khulna Gazette, the Daily Times of Bangladesh, Newsbangla24 and BD Today (all 29 September 2026) report from the first information report and Khulna Metropolitan Police Detective Branch (DB) statements that a businessman in Khulna city was joined on 29 July 2026 to a WhatsApp group call with a person introduced as National Parliament Whip Raqibul Islam Bakul, who discussed the sale of old machinery from Platinum Jute Mill and asked for advance payment. The businessman handed over Tk2 crore in cash that afternoon to men sent as representatives and a further Tk1.5 crore after inspecting the mill (30 July per Khulna Gazette and BD Today; 2 August per the Daily Times of Bangladesh and Newsbangla24), a total of Tk3.5 crore. When the businessman met the Whip in person in Khulna on 1 September, the Whip disclaimed any knowledge of it. The complaint filed on 18 September under the Cyber Security Act says the caller's voice had been changed with digital technology and artificial intelligence to pass as the Whip's; the DB deputy commissioner described the case to Asia Post as fraud by imitating the Whip's voice through AI. A press release from the Khulna city BNP media cell, sent on 4 September and published by Jaijaidin on 5 September, had already said a ring was using a US number and AI to clone the Whip's voice and demand money. Police arrested four people, recovered Tk12 lakh, and the prime accused gave a confessional statement before a magistrate on 28 September; on 29 September a court added two more detained men to the case. The voice-cloning tool is not identified and no forensic finding has been reported.
Core concern High reported severity Criminal Charges
AI involvement reported · Causal attribution alleged · 7 sources, 2 underlying accounts · Added 01/10/2026
23 Feb 2026 to 25 Feb 2026ItalyUnidentified voice-cloning tool
On 23 February 2026 Paolo Molesini, then chairman of Fideuram (the private-banking subsidiary of Intesa Sanpaolo), received a WhatsApp message from an unknown number from someone claiming to be Intesa's chief executive Carlo Messina, announcing a confidential acquisition that had to be executed through Fideuram. The same day a caller presenting as a lawyer of A&O Shearman whom Molesini knew, whose voice ANSA, Il Fatto Quotidiano and Corriere della Sera, reporting from the Milan court papers, describe as created with artificial intelligence (today.it, which also cites the seizure decree, writes that the court papers do not yet answer whether the voice was imitated), had him sign a confidentiality agreement and sent eleven payment instructions; Fideuram's treasury head was separately contacted by someone posing as Fideuram's CEO. Between 23 and 25 February eleven transfers totalling about 95 million euros went to accounts in Portugal and at Bank of China; the bank's alarm systems and the Milan prosecutors recovered about 40-42 million from China and 13 million seized in Portugal, leaving at least 36 million (39.5 million per the court papers) missing after conversion into cryptocurrency. Molesini, who Corriere writes is not under investigation, resigned as chairman on 12 March 2026, which Fideuram announced as being for personal reasons; a 48-year-old Israeli citizen is under investigation as a member of the gang.
Core concern Medium reported severity Investigation Opened
AI involvement reported · Causal attribution supported · 8 sources, 5 underlying accounts · Added 30/09/2026
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 unknownIndiaUnidentified voice-cloning tool
Indore police told The Times of India that a local resident transferred Rs 1.83 lakh after callers used a purported AI-generated voice to impersonate his brother-in-law abroad. The callers claimed an expired visa would lead to imprisonment or job loss unless fees were paid. The victim discovered the fraud after speaking to the real relative the next day. Police said they coordinated account freezes and were working on recovery. The first call date and recovery outcome are unknown.
Core concern Medium reported severity
AI involvement reported · Causal attribution alleged · 1 source · Added 30/09/2026