Apr 2024CanadaMeta AI
A Winnipeg man told CBC that in spring 2024, after a problem moving his Facebook account to a new phone, his wife found what looked like a Facebook customer support number online, and before calling it he asked the Meta AI search tool in Facebook Messenger whether it was legitimate. According to his account and a screenshot he gave CBC, Meta AI answered that the number was "indeed a legitimate Facebook support number". Facebook has no phone support line. When he called, the person on the line obtained his account details, opened his Facebook account and had him install an app giving access to his phone; during the call someone used his PayPal account to buy a $500 Apple gift card and tried to buy bitcoin, which his bank refused. He cancelled cards, locked bank accounts, filed fraud and police reports, and PayPal reversed the $500 charge. Meta told CBC that Meta AI can sometimes produce inaccurate information and that its own searches gave different results. Winnipeg police said they had an active investigation.
Core concern Low reported severity Investigation Opened
AI involvement reported · Causal attribution alleged · 1 source · Added 02/11/2026
Nov 2025 to May 2026ItalyUnidentified voice-cloning tool
The Carabinieri of the Compagnia Roma Centro announced on 3 June 2026 that they had reported 44 people to the judicial authorities as the alleged perpetrators of 39 completed or attempted phone frauds committed between November 2025 and May 2026. According to the Carabinieri account relayed by RomaToday, Fanpage, RaiNews and Il Messaggero, the fraudsters posed as bank staff or police, faked the caller number shown on the victim's phone (spoofing) and used artificial-intelligence software to clone the voices of the victims' relatives, then invented threats to savings or road accidents involving children or grandchildren so that victims made urgent bank transfers or topped up payment cards held by accomplices. The victims were mostly older residents of Rome. The Carabinieri recovered money, gold and jewellery estimated at over 900,000 euros. The outlets do not describe an individual victim, do not say how many of the 39 cases involved a cloned voice, and do not say how the investigators established that the voices were AI-generated.
Core concern Medium reported severity Investigation Opened
AI involvement reported · Causal attribution alleged · 4 sources, 1 underlying account · Added 02/11/2026
Nov 2025AustraliaUnidentified video tool
In early November 2025 a pop-up advertisement on YouTube used the likeness and voice of Western Australia's Premier, Roger Cook, to promote an investment it claimed the government endorsed, requiring a $400 contribution. Consumer Protection WA, told of the advert by a member of the public on Friday 7 November, warned that it was a deepfake investment scam created using artificial intelligence, said it was investigating and asked the domain host to remove the scam website. Its commissioner told ABC News that, watched slowly, the lips do not move in time with the words and the hands look unusual. The Premier said on 8 November that he was very distressed to see his image used in this way and called the scam very scary and disgusting. No person who paid money after seeing the advert is described.
Core concern Low reported severity Investigation Opened
AI involvement reported · Causal attribution supported · 3 sources, 2 underlying accounts · Added 02/11/2026
Oct 2026IndiaUnidentified image and video tool
Police in Jaipur, Rajasthan, say a software engineer who went missing on 26 October 2026 staged his own kidnapping and sent relatives fabricated photos and videos, which police and the man's own account describe as AI-generated, showing him held captive, in pain and admitted to a hospital. Bhaskar English reports that he demanded a ransom of 7 lakh rupees from the family. His brother-in-law filed a kidnapping complaint, police searched several cities using CCTV footage, and on 30 October officers found him in Rishikesh. Police say he confessed and had borrowed money from friends that he could not repay. The Hindi daily Amar Ujala, which describes him as an IT student, reports that the family panicked at the messages before informing police, and that officers brought him back to Jaipur and handed him over to his family. No payment by the family and no charge are reported.
Core concern Low reported severity Investigation Opened
AI involvement reported · Causal attribution supported · 3 sources, 1 underlying account · Added 01/11/2026
Event date unknownLebanonUnidentified video tool
In a statement published on 28 October 2026, Lebanon's Internal Security Forces (ISF) said their Cybercrime and Intellectual Property Bureau had received a complaint, filed with the competent judiciary, against Facebook and TikTok pages that promoted various medicines and preparations using videos generated by artificial intelligence, in which the complainant appeared in a way that falsely suggested the complainant was promoting the products. The products were said to treat stomach and joint pain, prostate and heart problems, blood sugar and blood pressure, and included sexual enhancers and slimming preparations. A patrol caught two people in the act of handing dozens of orders to a delivery company, with 13,602 US dollars they said came from daily sales; raids in Beirut and other areas led to further arrests and the seizure of thousands of containers. The ISF said some mixtures did not match the ingredients on the labels, that paper records of thousands of orders indicated a large number of buyers, and that the Ministry of Public Health was testing the seized products. The ISF did not say how it established that the videos were AI-generated, and the complainant is not named.
Core concern Medium reported severity Investigation Opened
AI involvement reported · Causal attribution alleged · 2 sources, 1 underlying account · Added 29/10/2026
Event date unknownTaiwanUnidentified video tool
Taiwanese police said in June 2025 that a fraud call centre in Shalu district, Taichung, had targeted overseas Chinese women in the United States and Canada with romance-investment fraud. According to the police account reported by SETN and carried by Yahoo News Taiwan on 4 June 2025, the call centre created a range of male personas, cultivated relationships with the women, and video-chatted with them through an 'AI face replacement tool' that swapped the operator's face for a persona's; because the picture was very realistic, police say, many victims believed it, after which they were talked into investing in fake energy products and sending money to accounts the suspects supplied. Police say analysis of seized phones identified seven women in the US and Canada who were defrauded, with losses of about NT$3.5 million so far, and that the number of victims and the amount were still being compiled. A photo caption in the report says officers demonstrated the face-replacement tool. The call centre was raided in November 2024, and nine suspects were referred to Taichung prosecutors, seven of them detained; no indictment or verdict has been found.
Core concern Medium reported severity Investigation Opened
AI involvement reported · Causal attribution alleged · 1 source · Added 29/10/2026
13 Oct 2025 to 26 Nov 2025BrazilUnidentified video tool
The Federal District Civil Police (PCDF) in Brazil say a criminal group ran fake online donation campaigns that used images of elderly people, children and seriously ill people, and used artificial intelligence tools, including deepfakes, to make fake videos with the images of the singer Gusttavo Lima and the Catholic priests Marcelo Rossi and Fábio de Melo. The posts circulated on social media and sent people to pages imitating legitimate charity appeals; the money went to bank accounts the group controlled. Police say one company linked to the group received 215,575 transactions totalling about R$9.8 million between 13 October and 26 November 2025, mostly of R$30 and R$50, and that the number of transactions does not necessarily match the number of victims. On 28 October 2026 the PCDF launched Operação Cáritas with six preventive arrest warrants and search warrants in the Federal District and four states; five suspects had been arrested by the time of most reports (g1 reported six). How the police established that the videos were AI-made is not disclosed, and no response from the people depicted is reported.
Core concern Medium reported severity Investigation Opened
AI involvement reported · Causal attribution supported · 4 sources, 1 underlying account · Added 29/10/2026
Feb 2026 to Oct 2026ChinaUnidentified video tool
Shanghai police said on 26 October 2026 that officers in Putuo district had detained a man on suspicion of fraud after police were called on 16 October to a dispute between him and people he owed money to; officers brought him and three creditors, whom police describe as his friends, to the station. According to the police account relayed by ThePaper and China News Service, from 2019 he had borrowed from classmates and friends on a series of false pretexts, later saying his father had cancer and then that his father had died, and the borrowing totalled more than 1.7 million yuan, nearly all lost on the stock market. Police said he confessed that every pretext was invented, and that to make the scam more credible he used AI to generate short videos of his father gravely ill in bed and posted them on his WeChat Moments feed; a Hong Kong relay of the police account words this more cautiously, saying the related photos and videos should be AI-generated, and adds that his father knew nothing of it. The tool used, how many people saw the videos and how much was borrowed after they were posted are not reported. The man is in criminal detention while the investigation continues.
Core concern Medium reported severity Investigation Opened
AI involvement reported · Causal attribution alleged · 3 sources, 1 underlying account · Added 28/10/2026
Apr 2026Event location unknownUnidentified video tool
Chemnitz police said in a media release on 6 July 2026 that a woman from central Saxony had lost more than 1 million euros to investment fraud. According to the release, in April 2026 she came across what police call an AI-generated video of the ZDF talk show Markus Lanz, in which a supposed financial expert promoted a linked investment platform; after she registered, callers posing as a broker persuaded her over months to transfer sums from almost 10,000 euros to more than 460,000 euros. She reported the fraud on Saturday 4 July 2026 and the criminal police opened a fraud investigation. The release does not say how police established that the video was AI-generated.
Core concern High reported severity Investigation Opened
AI involvement reported · Causal attribution alleged · 3 sources, 2 underlying accounts · Added 27/10/2026
Event date unknownBrazilUnidentified video tool
A woman in Porto Alegre, Brazil, saw an online video in which the model Gisele Bündchen appeared to promote a free skincare kit, paid the R$44.57 shipping fee and received nothing. Her police report, registered on 4 August 2024, led the Rio Grande do Sul Civil Police to Operation Modo Selva. On 1 October 2025 police executed 26 court orders in five states against a group they say used deepfake videos of celebrities, including Gisele Bündchen and several TV presenters, in fake product promotions; four people had been arrested by the time of the reports. The investigating delegate said the criminals had created a deepfake of the model's image and voice. Police say the scheme moved at least R$20 million, and assets worth up to R$210 million were frozen. The model thanked police for finding criminals who use artificial intelligence for online scams. No charge or trial outcome has been reported since.
Core concern Medium reported severity Investigation Opened
AI involvement reported · Causal attribution supported · 3 sources, 2 underlying accounts · Added 27/10/2026
Event date unknownEvent location unknownUnidentified video tool (suspected)
The Pleven District Prosecutor's Office in Bulgaria announced on 12 June 2026 that it was leading an investigation after a woman living in Pleven province reported an investment fraud. According to the prosecutors, she had been misled by a report broadcast on a social network, probably generated by artificial intelligence, in which a popular television presenter and a political leader promoted, in an interview, an investment programme supposedly introduced in Bulgaria. The release's headline says the report used the voices and faces of the two people. She followed the links in the report, was immediately called on Viber by a person who presented as the company's manager, and, on that person's instructions, transferred a total of 33,000 euros in several transactions of up to 10,000 euros each, after which contact stopped. The prosecutors do not say how they concluded that the report was AI-generated, do not name the people shown and report no suspect.
Core concern Medium reported severity Investigation Opened
AI involvement suspected · Causal attribution alleged · 2 sources, 1 underlying account · Added 27/10/2026
Sept 2026 to Oct 2026VietnamChatGPT (reported)
Tuoi Tre reported on 18 October 2026 that buyers in Vietnam who ordered boxes of khau nhuc (braised pork belly), sold online as a specialty of That Khe in Lang Son province, found pork-trotter bones and pig skin. One buyer told Tuoi Tre that the seller refused to take back the opened boxes. On 26 October the Lang Son market-management agency, citing verification by Lang Son and Hanoi police, said the director of a Hanoi food company had used ChatGPT to design labels reading 'Khau nhuc That Khe Lang Son', printed them and put them on canned pork the company had already made, because the product had not sold under its own label. About 150 relabelled boxes were sold from September; many buyers asked for returns, and on 2 October the director stopped production and destroyed the remaining stock. Hanoi police opened a case file. The director is not named here.
Core concern Low reported severity Investigation Opened
AI involvement reported · Causal attribution alleged · 3 sources, 2 underlying accounts · Added 27/10/2026
Event date unknownEvent location unknownUnidentified voice-cloning and deepfake tool
The Nigeria Police Force National Cybercrime Centre (NPF-NCCC) said at a press briefing in Abuja on Friday 23 October 2026 that its operatives arrested three suspects in Lekki, Lagos State, on 14 October over alleged identity theft, investment fraud and money laundering. According to the centre's director, the suspects allegedly operated fake social media accounts impersonating prominent personalities to trick victims into transferring money, and were linked to a cryptocurrency investment scheme promoted through a website called Bitcoin Trading Hub. Investigators said one of the suspects used artificial intelligence voice cloning and deepfake technology to impersonate Tesla chief executive Elon Musk and communicate with victims, particularly in the United States and the United Kingdom. The police did not say how they established the AI use or which tools were involved, how many people were deceived or how much they lost. Seized devices were undergoing forensic examination to identify victims and trace the proceeds, and the three suspects remained in custody.
Core concern Medium reported severity Investigation Opened
AI involvement reported · Causal attribution alleged · 2 sources, 1 underlying account · Added 25/10/2026
Event date unknownEvent location unknownUnidentified AI tool
The Belgian Pensions Ombudsman (Ombudsdienst Pensioenen) published an anonymised example from its casework. According to the Ombudsman, a future retiree with limited digital skills wanted to apply online for an early retirement pension but did not press the send button, so no application was filed and his pension was not paid in his first month of retirement. The Federal Pension Service told him that an early pension can start at the earliest in the month after the application, so that month could not be paid. He checked this using AI and received the answer that a pension can be paid retroactively for up to one year. He complained to the Federal Pension Service and then to the Ombudsman. The Ombudsman confirmed that the service's answer was correct, told him that the information he had found concerned Dutch legislation, referred him to the pension services' websites and says it tried in this way to restore his trust in the pension service. It could not recover the missed month because Belgian pension law has no right to correct good-faith errors. The lost month resulted from the unsubmitted application; the AI answer misinformed him about whether it could be recovered. The tool is not named and the dates of the exchange and complaint are not stated; European Pensions reported the case on 9 July 2026.
Core concern Low reported severity Regulatory Action
AI involvement supported · Causal attribution supported · 2 sources, 1 underlying account · Added 24/10/2026
20 Apr 2023ChinaUnidentified video tool
Police in Baotou, Inner Mongolia, said in a statement published in May 2023 that on 20 April 2023 the legal representative of a technology company in Fuzhou, Fujian, received a WeChat video call from someone who appeared to be a friend and asked to route a 4.3 million yuan tender deposit through the company's account; trusting the video call, he transferred 4.3 million yuan in two payments. The police said the fraudster had used AI face-swapping to pose as the friend. At Fuzhou police's request, Baotou police and a local bank stopped 3.3684 million yuan within about ten minutes; 931,600 yuan had been moved on and was being pursued.
Core concern High reported severity Investigation Opened
AI involvement reported · Causal attribution supported · 2 sources · Added 22/10/2026
2020Hong Kong SAR ChinaUnidentified voice-cloning tool
According to a court document reported by Forbes, in which the United Arab Emirates sought US investigators' help, fraudsters used 'deep voice' technology to clone the voice of a company director. In early 2020 a branch manager of a Japanese company in Hong Kong received a call from a man whose voice he recognised as the director of the parent business, who said an acquisition needed transfers of about $35 million; emails from the supposed director and a lawyer confirmed the details, and the manager began making the transfers. Forbes reports that as much as $35 million was stolen. The UAE, whose Dubai Public Prosecution Office led the investigation, believes at least 17 people were involved and asked for help tracing $400,000 sent to US accounts. No arrests or recovery are reported.
Core concern High reported severity Investigation Opened
AI involvement reported · Causal attribution alleged · 2 sources, 1 underlying account · Added 22/10/2026
Event date unknownHong Kong SAR ChinaUnidentified video tool
Hong Kong police said at a press briefing reported by CNN on 4 February 2024 that a finance worker at a multinational firm had been duped into attending a video call with what appeared to be the company's UK-based chief financial officer and other staff, all of whom were deepfake recreations, and had then remitted a total of HK$200 million (about US$25.6 million). In May 2024 the British engineering firm Arup confirmed to CNN and the Guardian that it was the company involved, that it had notified Hong Kong police in January 2024, and that fake voices and images were used. The worker was not named.
Core concern High reported severity Investigation Opened
AI involvement reported · Causal attribution supported · 3 sources, 2 underlying accounts · Added 22/10/2026
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 unknownEvent location unknownUnidentified AI tool
The Itzehoe police directorate reported on 14 March 2024 that the Heide criminal police were dealing with two cases in which older people fell for fake websites where supposedly genuine celebrities promoted investments. In one, a seemingly genuine actor recommended an investment in a deceptively real interview, which the police say was created with artificial intelligence. Links on the sites led the victims, a pensioner and an older married couple, to a supposed trading platform; after friendly callers gained remote access to their computers, the couple transferred several thousand euros on top of the first payment. No gains were paid and the money was lost. The other case, a fake news article, is not described as AI-made.
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 (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