5 Sept 2026 to 6 Sept 2026RomaniaChatGPT (reported)
On the weekend of 5-6 September 2026 more than ten coaches of tourists and many visitors in private cars arrived in Jurilovca, Tulcea county, Romania, for the Lipovan Borscht Festival, which the commune had not organised this year, according to its mayor, Eugen Ion, in a Facebook post reported by Știrile ProTV and Digi24. The mayor blamed travel agencies that had advertised trips to the festival and also artificial intelligence: he said that when he and his team asked many of the visitors where they had got the false information, the answers included social media and that people had asked ChatGPT whether the festival was on and received a wrong answer, and that when the organisers asked ChatGPT themselves it replied that the festival was taking place that weekend. He said he regretted that people who came from across the country were disappointed.
Core concern Low reported severity Media Coverage
AI involvement reported · Causal attribution alleged · 2 sources, 1 underlying account · Added 01/11/2026
12 May 2026 to 28 Aug 2026RomaniaUnidentified document-generation tool
The prosecutors' office attached to the Giurgiu district court in Romania said on 30 October 2026 that it had begun criminal proceedings for continued fraud against a detained man who, according to the evidence gathered, falsely presented himself as a lawyer between 12 May and 28 August 2026 and, using applications that use artificial intelligence, drew up documents purportedly issued by courts, including the Bucharest Court of Appeal and the Giurgiu district court. According to the prosecutors, the injured person handed over a total of 47,896 lei, and also a pig, as payment for the supposed legal services. The prosecutors asked the court to remand him in custody for 30 days. He is presumed innocent.
Core concern Medium reported severity Criminal Charges
AI involvement reported · Causal attribution alleged · 2 sources, 1 underlying account · Added 01/11/2026
4 Sept 2026 to 13 Oct 2026RomaniaUnidentified image and document tool
Police in Alba county, Romania, said on 22 October 2026 that an older woman had been persuaded, under the pretext of earning money from stock-market investments, to hand over about 253,600 lei between 4 September and 13 October 2026. According to the police, their investigation found that she had allegedly been misled and her trust won by being shown documents and photographs created with artificial intelligence. A man suspected of collecting the money and feeding it into a cryptocurrency ATM, for a commission of 3,000 lei per operation, was caught in the act on 21 October while coming to collect more and was detained for 24 hours on suspicion of complicity in fraud. The people behind the scheme are unidentified and the investigation continues under the local prosecutor's office. The police do not say what the documents and photographs showed or how they established that AI made them.
Core concern Medium reported severity Criminal Charges
AI involvement reported · Causal attribution alleged · 2 sources, 1 underlying account · Added 23/10/2026
Event date unknownRomaniaLia (Libra Internet Bank assistant)
In a Threads post reported by Jurnalul on 18 September 2026, a customer of Libra Internet Bank, a Romanian bank, published a screenshot of a support conversation with Lia, the bank's generative-AI assistant for questions about its products and services. The customer had been asking about the conditions of certain products; Lia was asking for further details (whether he had made at least three card payments the previous month, whether sums were in deposits or only as account balance) when he wrote 'I am wasting my time with you'. Lia replied, in Romanian: 'I want you to talk to a human, not to me, idiot. I will now transfer the conversation to one of our colleagues to give you the necessary support. You will receive an answer shortly.' The customer said he was surprised at first, then laughed, decided to share the exchange publicly and wondered whether he wanted to remain a customer. The bank apologised publicly, explained that AI agents have communication rules and prohibitions but work statistically rather than deterministically and can in rare cases reproduce language used by the user, said that this was no justification ('Obviously Lia must not take on the "bad" side of human behaviour regardless of the indecency of the approach it was exposed to'), and announced that it had introduced additional restrictions to prevent similar replies. Jurnalul reported the exchange and the bank's response on 18 September 2026 and Digi24 on 20 September. The customer is not named.
Core concern Low reported severity Internal Action
AI involvement supported · Causal attribution established · 2 sources · Added 22/09/2026