Thanh Hóa, Vietnam: provincial police received reports from nearly 20 people threatened with fabricated sexual images of themselves unless they paid, one asked for 1.5 billion dong
Thanh Hóa provincial police said on 3 October 2026 that their cybersecurity and high-tech crime division had, since the start of October, received reports from nearly 20 people threatened with extortion using sexual images and videos spliced from their own photos, which senders threatened to publish unless money was transferred. One victim was asked for as much as 1.5 billion dong, and officials, including commune-level leaders, were among the targets. The police release says the material was made with technology; Báo Thanh Hóa, reporting information compiled from the same police division, says the senders used AI and deepfake technology to put victims' faces onto sexual images. No payment, arrest or named victim is reported.
AI involvement reported · Causal attribution alleged · 3 sources, 1 underlying account · Added 04/10/2026