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. Thirty suspects were detained on suspicion of fraud, more than 1 million yuan was frozen, and the ring's transactions exceeded 10 million yuan.
Core concern Medium reported severity Investigation Opened
AI involvement reported · Causal attribution alleged · 2 sources, 1 underlying account · Added 01/10/2026
27 Sept 2026IndiaUnidentified video tool
A 22-year-old woman in Begusarai district, Bihar, told police, her lawyer and Dainik Bhaskar that a man from the village of her maternal relatives, who had pursued her and been refused, made a nude video of her with AI about four to five months earlier and sent it to her in an attempt to blackmail her. On the morning of 27 September 2026, she says, his brother-in-law, her neighbour, gave her a motorcycle lift while she was out collecting self-help-group dues and took her to meet him, and the two men led her into a hotel room 'to talk' about the video. In her account the room was locked, she was threatened with a knife, beaten and raped, the assault was filmed, a noose was put round her neck, and the AI-made video and the assault video were sent to WhatsApp groups, including her self-help group's; she hid in the bathroom until the man left. A video of the beating spread on social media. After she spent 28 September going between police stations, an FIR was registered at Begusarai Nagar police station late that night (case 451/26); the SP formed a special investigation team, seized hotel CCTV and the entry register, and one accused was reported arrested by the evening of 29 September (Prabhat Khabar; NewsTak). Dainik Bhaskar reported on 30 September that the main accused had been arrested while fleeing towards Nepal. The AI element rests on the complainant's account; the police statements read describe the assault video and the arrests without characterising the earlier video.
Core concern High reported severity Criminal Charges
AI involvement reported · Causal attribution alleged · 5 sources, 2 underlying accounts · Added 30/09/2026
Event date unknownHong Kong SAR ChinaUnidentified 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 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
AI involvement reported · Causal attribution alleged · 3 sources, 1 underlying account · Added 30/09/2026
8 Jan 2026United KingdomUnidentified facial recognition system
The Guardian, in a joint report with Liberty Investigates, reported on 25 February 2026 that Alvi Choudhury, a 26-year-old software engineer, was arrested at his home in Southampton in January 2026 on suspicion of a £3,000 burglary in Milton Keynes, about 100 miles away, and held in custody for nearly 10 hours. Thames Valley Police had used automated retrospective facial recognition software, which matched him with CCTV footage of the burglary suspect. Choudhury says the man in the footage looked about 10 years younger and had different features. Thames Valley Police wrote to him that the arrest may have been the result of bias within facial recognition technology, and told the Guardian that the decision rested on the investigating officers’ own visual assessment and was not influenced by racial profiling. Choudhury is claiming damages from Thames Valley Police and Hampshire Constabulary.
Contextual tracker case Medium reported severity
AI involvement supported · Causal attribution disputed · 4 sources, 3 underlying accounts · Added 29/09/2026
Apr 2025United StatesUnidentified facial recognition system
Reporting from August 2025 says an NYPD facial recognition search of images from a February 2025 indecent exposure in Manhattan's Union Square produced a possible match to a man who did not fit the described suspect. The man was placed in a photo lineup, arrested in April 2025 and jailed for two days. Prosecutors dismissed the case in July 2025 after his public defenders showed he was misidentified. The man says the process of becoming a correctional officer 'kind of' froze after the arrest. The NYPD says it never arrests solely on a facial recognition match.
Contextual tracker case Medium reported severity
AI involvement reported · Causal attribution alleged · 3 sources · Added 29/09/2026
1 Aug 2024 to 1 Oct 2024United StatesFACES facial recognition
In August 2024, Robert Dillon, a 52-year-old self-employed commercial crabber from the Fort Myers area, was arrested at his San Carlos Park home on a third-degree felony warrant for the attempted luring of a child at a Jacksonville Beach McDonald's in November 2023 — a crime he had no part in. The warrant rested on a 93%-confidence result from FACES, the Face Analysis Comparison and Examination System maintained by the Pinellas County Sheriff's Office, run against low-resolution cell-phone photos of a surveillance screen, plus a restaurant employee's photo-lineup identification. Dillon spent a night in jail and bonded out against his truck's title; prosecutors dropped the charges in October 2024 after work-alibi evidence, but it took about a year to expunge the arrest and remove his mugshot. In June 2026 the ACLU filed a federal lawsuit (M.D. Fla.) against Jacksonville Beach, the Jacksonville sheriff and the Pinellas County Sheriff's Office, calling Dillon one of at least 14 known wrongful arrests from police reliance on facial recognition since 2019.
Contextual tracker case Medium reported severity Lawsuit Filed
AI involvement supported · Causal attribution supported · 3 sources · Added 15/09/2026