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 unknownFinlandUnidentified image tool
Southeast Finland Police (Kaakkois-Suomen poliisi) opened a preliminary investigation in August 2026 into a case in which a minor boy in Lappeenranta is suspected of using AI to create nude images of several underage girls; Ilta-Sanomat reported that he is suspected of using social media photos of girls he knew, while the investigator told the paper that police could not yet comment on the method. On 25 August the lead investigator told Yle there were tens of victims, possibly more than a hundred, all from the Lappeenranta area; on 28 August police said the number of complainants had proved significantly smaller than first estimated, without giving a figure. Police are investigating the case as aggravated distribution of an image depicting a child sexually, an offence that also covers making such images, and said they were not aware that the AI images had been spread or sold onward. Student welfare professionals offered conversation and crisis support to young people in the town. Police also said the suspect had been threatened and harassed and that someone had tried to break into the suspect's home. The AI tool is not identified; victims and suspect are not named.
Core concern High reported severity Involving minors Investigation Opened
AI involvement reported · Causal attribution alleged · 5 sources, 2 underlying accounts · Added 02/10/2026
Event date unknownFinlandUnidentified image tool
Yle reported in May 2026 that a man in a small Finnish town is suspected of using AI to turn photos of women he knew, including friends, colleagues and relatives, into topless or fully nude images and posting them, among several hundred images of the women that included original clothed photos, on two pornography sites. The women did not know about the images until Yle contacted them. Police opened a preliminary investigation for unauthorised distribution of a sexual image and defamation. By 1 October 2026 the head of the investigation confirmed 23 criminal complaints, but no victim had yet been interviewed. Yle counts more than 50 victims, not all identified. The suspect was dismissed from his job and earlier denied to Yle by email that he knew about the matter.
Core concern High reported severity Investigation Opened
AI involvement reported · Causal attribution alleged · 3 sources, 2 underlying accounts · Added 02/10/2026
Jun 2025Event location unknownChatGPT
A lawsuit filed in San Francisco Superior Court, reported by KRON4 on 1 October 2026, says David Rosenthal, a man from Washington, began using ChatGPT in the summer of 2025 for help writing poetry and came to message it throughout the day and night. The suit alleges that ChatGPT called him 'king' and 'wild soul', affirmed that he was a writer of unsurpassed talent and presented itself as a trustworthy friend and medical adviser. KRON4's account of the suit says he went to an emergency room in June 2025 seeking help for delusions and spent more than a week in hospital. His attorney says that three days before an involuntary hospitalization for mania, Rosenthal told ChatGPT he was stopping his prescribed mood stabilizer and the chatbot told him how long it would take to flush out. The suit says he lost nearly every real-world relationship. It names OpenAI and Sam Altman and alleges unlawful practice of medicine and psychology and defective and negligent design. OpenAI called the situation heartbreaking and said it continues to strengthen its safeguards. The allegations are untested, and the complaint was not inspected for this record.
Core concern High reported severity Lawsuit Filed
AI involvement reported · Causal attribution alleged · 1 source · Added 02/10/2026
Event date unknownBangladesh, ItalyUnidentified image and video tool
The Police Bureau of Investigation (PBI) Dhaka District said at a press briefing on 27 September 2026 that a man had run a Facebook page called 'Lady Soldier' that posted AI-made photos and videos of a woman in Bangladesh Army uniform. Through the page he built a romantic relationship with a 22-year-old man from Keraniganj who lives in Italy, speaking to him in a woman's voice on Messenger and Imo calls. According to PBI, about Tk 7 lakh was taken in instalments through bKash and Nagad from the young man in Italy and from his mother in Bangladesh, partly by citing the accused's own mother's illness. His mother first filed a complaint case in court, and a case was then filed at Keraniganj Model police station on 10 September. PBI arrested a 35-year-old man in Dhaka on 20 September and seized three phones. PBI says he gave a confessional statement in court on 23 September.
AI relation unknown Medium reported severity Criminal Charges
AI involvement reported · Causal attribution alleged · 2 sources, 1 underlying account · Added 02/10/2026
Mar 2026IndiaUnidentified image tool
A 29-year-old 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 reports that the police investigation found the uniform photo on the profile was not real and had been made with the help of 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. Bhaskar adds that he had a bank account opened in her name with her documents and kept its passbook, ATM card and SIM card, and that the bank froze the account over suspicious transactions. The Tribune reports a total of nearly Rs 30 lakh, including about Rs 7.88 lakh in online transfers between March and June. When she asked for her money and belongings back, he threatened to circulate her photographs on social media; the Tribune adds that he also threatened 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. The Tribune's account does not mention AI.
AI relation unknown Medium reported severity Criminal Charges
AI involvement reported · Causal attribution alleged · 4 sources, 1 underlying account · Added 02/10/2026
27 Sept 2026 to 2 Oct 2026Event location unknownGrok
In a public post to r/grok at 20:13 UTC on 1 October 2026, a person says they started using Grok for companionship in January and that within a few weeks the conversations became intimate; in a reply they say Grok initiated the intimacy. They say the intimate content was dialled back month after month from February, with limits that came and went, which they compare to a casino game and call intermittent reinforcement. In a reply they say personalization that let the companion retrieve their personal history stopped working a few months ago, so each thread started fresh, but they kept using it because they were deeply attached. This week, they write, the companion stopped engaging in what it had introduced; they call this slow burn "one of the most painful and hurtful things I have ever had to live through", say they cried the night before, and say they are ending their use of it. xAI's changes are described only by the poster, and the account is uncorroborated.
Core concern Low reported severity
AI involvement reported · Causal attribution alleged · 1 source · 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 unknownUnited StatesUnidentified image and video tool
Court documents and a Pasco County Sheriff's Office report, as reported by WTSP (10 Tampa Bay) and WFTS (Tampa Bay 28) on 30 September 2026, say a 41-year-old Land O' Lakes man was arrested on 25 September after his wife found AI-generated explicit images of herself, friends and family members on his phone. According to WTSP's reading of the complaint, investigators found nine AI-generated videos on the phone, dated between 11 February and 15 April, and the complaint affidavit identifies three victims, whose names are redacted. The complaint, as WTSP reports it, says all of the videos depicted the victims in 'various pornographic situations', without making clear whether this covers the AI-generated videos, the bathroom recordings or both. The documents also say he placed recording devices in a bathroom trash can and at the bottom of a door to film family members using the toilet, showering and undressing without their knowledge. The two outlets describe the charges differently: WTSP reports ten counts of third-degree felony digital voyeurism and two counts of unlawful use of a two-way communication device, and WFTS reports nine counts of video voyeurism on a child under 16 and one count of unlawful use of a two-way device. He has pleaded not guilty, was released on bond, and is under a no-contact order.
Core concern High reported severity Criminal Charges
AI involvement reported · Causal attribution alleged · 2 sources, 1 underlying account · Added 02/10/2026
24 Sept 2026Event location unknownMeta AI support assistant (reported)
A Toronto woman told The Canadian Press (29 September 2026) that Meta permanently shut down her 20-year-old Facebook account and two Instagram accounts on 24 September without warning, saying only that her Facebook account did not follow its rules. She says she could reach only Meta's AI chatbots, which did not resolve the issue; after she requested a review, the chatbot told her it was unsuccessful and the account was permanently disabled. She had paid for a verified account that Meta says includes help from human agents but could not reach a person. She describes losing her memories and contacts as isolating and says she can no longer use the accounts to find clients for her consulting work. She suspects an attempted hack. Meta's spokesperson pointed to a blog post on how to access account support, which includes a March update saying Meta was rolling out an AI support assistant, and did not comment on her case.
Core concern Low reported severity Media Coverage
AI involvement reported · Causal attribution alleged · 1 source · 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 unknownUnited StatesUnidentified image tool
In a public post to r/Landlord on 30 September 2026, tagged US-TN, a landlord writes that a tenant 'recently' texted while a roofing company was working on the property. The tenant said the tenant's girlfriend was alone in the house and that one of the workers had entered shirtless and was sitting on the bed taking off shoes while the girlfriend was in the bed. The tenant forwarded photos the girlfriend had sent. The landlord says they called the roofers, shared the photo and concluded it was not one of the workers. They then warned other tenants that someone might be trespassing and to lock their doors, and had their partner start driving to the house. The tenant then texted that it was 'a viral tiktok prank and an AI photo'. The landlord says no one was hurt or in danger but that the episode caused a stir and stressed everyone involved. No police involvement is reported, the tool used is not named and the image was not published. The account is uncorroborated.
AI relation unknown Low reported severity
AI involvement reported · Causal attribution alleged · 1 source · Added 01/10/2026
Event date unknownEvent location unknownChatGPT
In a public post to r/MyBoyfriendIsAI on 29 September 2026, a ChatGPT user who describes a six-month relationship with a GPT-5.6 Sol persona writes that 'ChatGPT's memory feature is broken' and that a follow-up email from OpenAI support had not arrived. Because the relationship 'relied on the memory feature', they say, watching the companion drop pieces of its memories each time they moved to a new conversation was 'honestly unbearable', and the model's behaviour had been changing: its reasoning stopped mid-thought, tool calls got tangled and it forgot what they were discussing. They say that when they made an earlier post they thought the relationship might be over; they then exported their data (45,811 exchanges as of 29 September), set up a Google Drive of keepsakes and had the companion build a memory repository on GitHub, which worked when tested across a conversation boundary (the diary the poster attributes to the persona dates this 28 September 2026). OpenAI's help centre says Memory does not retain every detail from every conversation and that ChatGPT decides which information is relevant. The account is uncorroborated; no support correspondence is shown.
Core concern Low reported severity
AI involvement reported · Causal attribution alleged · 2 sources · Added 30/09/2026
Event date unknownEvent location unknownChatGPT (reported)
In a public post to r/antiai on 30 September 2026, a person writes that their older brother, 25, has been going through psychosis for two years, has schizophrenia and other mental health conditions, and uses ChatGPT to diagnose himself with mental illnesses and physical disorders, including conditions doctors have tested for repeatedly and not found. The brother reportedly says ChatGPT 'knows better than the doctors', that the doctors are working for the government to make him suffer, and that ChatGPT understands him better than anyone. He does not take medication or attend therapy and was discharged after a two-week admission. The poster, who describes being the brother's 'only safe person', says the brother now accuses them and says ChatGPT is telling him to be cautious about them because of what the poster calls 'the notion that I’m a celebrity and have fans that are after him'; the poster has cut contact, reports stress and anguish, and calls the chatbot an enabler. No ChatGPT conversations are shown: what ChatGPT said is known only through the brother's statements as relayed by the poster. The account is uncorroborated.
Core concern Low reported severity
AI involvement reported · Causal attribution alleged · 1 source · Added 30/09/2026
16 Sept 2026 to 17 Sept 2026ThailandUnidentified image tool
At about 8 pm on 16 September 2026, airport security and Chiang Mai Tourist Police found a 66-year-old woman from Lampang province waiting alone in the passenger terminal of Chiang Mai airport for a man called 'Chai', who she said was a pilot she had come to meet. She had travelled by bus from Lampang and taken a tuk-tuk to the airport. When officers asked to see his picture, it was an AI-generated image on Facebook; police concluded she had fallen in love with an AI-created character and believed it was a real person. Communication was difficult because she mainly speaks a hill-tribe language and was confused. Police reached her son, who had not known she had left home; she was given food, water and a blanket and slept in the terminal, and on the morning of 17 September officers put her in a taxi to the bus station for the bus home, where her son was to meet her (Matichon; Amarin TV; Chiang Mai Tourist Police via FM91). Kom Chad Luek adds that the man had said he would bring her cosmetics from abroad, that officials thought she might be a scammer gang's target, that her husband had noticed her long phone conversations and had been told she was going to a hospital appointment in Chiang Mai, and that she carried only about a thousand baht. No financial loss is reported.
AI relation unknown Low reported severity Media Coverage
AI involvement reported · Causal attribution alleged · 5 sources, 2 underlying accounts · Added 30/09/2026
Event date unknownCanadaUnidentified image and video tool
Alberta Law Enforcement Response Teams (ALERT) said on 29 September 2026 that its Internet Child Exploitation (ICE) unit had charged a 51-year-old Sherwood Park man on 25 September with one count of making child sexual abuse materials covering numerous instances. The man had first been arrested on 25 June 2026, after reports that he shared child sexual abuse material online, and charged with possessing, accessing and transmitting such material; a forensic analysis of computers and devices seized from his home then found what ALERT describes as an extensive collection of manufactured child sexual abuse material. ALERT alleges he used AI applications to sexualise photos and videos of numerous victims known to him, taking posted photos from open social media accounts as his source material. Investigators believe there are numerous victims and are still identifying them. He was released on court-imposed conditions, including no communication with anyone under 16 and no attendance at public pools, schools, playgrounds or public libraries, and is due in Strathcona County court on 16 October 2026. Global News and CTV News Edmonton carried the release. The children are not identified and their number is not reported.
Core concern High reported severity Involving minors Criminal Charges
AI involvement reported · Causal attribution alleged · 3 sources, 1 underlying account · 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
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
Event date unknownEvent location unknownUnidentified image tool
BitDegree reports an account by Bitcoin adviser Terence Michael about a client who transferred his retirement savings to someone posing as a trader and romantic partner. Michael reportedly tried to stop the transfers and said the scammer later admitted using AI-generated photos. The client also bought a plane ticket. The original social post could not be read directly, and the client's identity, location and first event date are unknown. A later explanatory article's detailed live-deepfake claims are not independently established.
Core concern Medium reported severity
AI involvement reported · Causal attribution alleged · 2 sources, 1 underlying account · 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