Event date unknownThailandUnidentified video tool
In August 2025 Thai PBS Verify reported a Facebook advert that carried the Thai PBS World Tonight logo and showed a news anchor apparently interviewing two prominent Thai business leaders about an investment scheme called Crystallum AI. The anchor was a former NHK World presenter who had never anchored for Thai PBS. Thai PBS Verify traced the footage to a 2013 English-language report about flood housing, found that the logo had been changed and the English reporting replaced with a synthesized Thai voice, and said an AI detection tool gave a 72.3% probability that the clip was an AI deepfake. The former anchor said she was shocked her image was used to deceive people into investing and that it could discredit her reputation, and spoke out to warn others. No person who invested after seeing the advert is described.
Core concern Low reported severity Media Coverage
AI involvement reported · Causal attribution supported · 1 source · Added 01/11/2026
Event date unknownThailandUnidentified video tool
In mid-2025 a Facebook page using a news outlet's logo ran a two-minute video as adverts in which a Thai PBS World news anchor appeared to interview the chief executive of the Miss Universe Organization about an online investment platform said to turn 8,000 baht into as much as 800,000 baht. Thai PBS Verify reported on 22 July 2025 that the clip was an AI deepfake: it traced the anchor's footage to a Thai PBS World Tonight report of 24 June 2025, and the chairman of the company Guardian AI, whom it consulted as an AI image technology specialist, cited lip movements that do not match the voice and blurred facial features. The anchor told Thai PBS Verify that ordinary viewers could mistake it for real news, that this was the most convincing of at least three or four such incidents in a year, and that she was worried. No person who invested after seeing the advert is described.
Core concern Low reported severity Media Coverage
AI involvement reported · Causal attribution supported · 2 sources, 1 underlying account · Added 01/11/2026
Event date unknownTaiwan, ChinaUnidentified video tool
Taiwan's Criminal Investigation Bureau said on 2 February 2026 that a fraud-services ring working with offshore scam call centres obtained personal data and photos of people in mainland China and used deepfake technology, which public broadcaster PTS reports as AI, to make face-verification videos of the victims. The videos passed the identity check of China's digital-yuan (e-CNY) app, letting the ring bind the victims' bank accounts and move their savings. Police count at least 55 victims and losses of about NT$200 million. Officers raided the ring's flat in Beitun, Taichung, in November 2024, and its financier was arrested in Thailand and returned to Taiwan; Taichung prosecutors indicted four people for fraud, computer misuse and organised crime. The dates of the individual thefts are not reported.
Core concern High reported severity Criminal Charges
AI involvement reported · Causal attribution supported · 2 sources, 1 underlying account · Added 30/10/2026
Event date unknownEvent location unknownUnidentified video tool
A Chinese-Australian woman who lost A$49,000 to a scam in 2023 and later spoke to Australian media about it found earlier in 2026 that her face had been taken and used in AI scam videos, according to a News Corp Australia investigation compiled in Chinese by the community news site Yeeyi on 28 October 2026. The Facebook video adverts, which used footage from her earlier media interviews, claimed that Interpol could help investment-scam victims recover their money. The security firm Infoblox, which investigated the adverts, traced an operator who used fake news pages to run polished AI video adverts that sent users to phishing sites promising to recover losses. The woman says the advert disgusted her, that the trauma of the original scam has not healed and that she fears other victims will be drawn in. Meta removed the adverts using her image after Hong Kong media reported them, but Infoblox says similar scam content remains widespread. The report does not name the AI tool or say how many people were deceived.
Core concern Low reported severity Media Coverage
AI involvement reported · Causal attribution supported · 1 source · Added 29/10/2026
Event date unknownMexicoChatGPT (reported)
A woman who wanted to buy an air conditioner asked ChatGPT for help, according to a Milenio feature published on 2 October 2026. ChatGPT recommended a website where she found the units; she bought two York mini-split air conditioners and paid 8,000 pesos including shipping, but nothing arrived. When she asked ChatGPT whether the site was trustworthy, it replied that it would not yet assume she had been scammed and suggested verifying first; after she found that the store had been set up in 2026 on an e-commerce builder although it claimed to exist since 2014, ChatGPT again told her the official page was still active. She then contacted the brand by other means and confirmed it was a scam. Milenio quotes ChatGPT's replies from her account; no screenshot is described and no refund is reported.
Core concern Low reported severity Media Coverage
AI involvement reported · Causal attribution alleged · 1 source · Added 27/10/2026
Event date unknownEvent location unknownUnidentified video tool
A well-known Taiwanese health educator and former hospital toxicology nurse, who appears on television health programmes, told TVBS and PTS in October 2026 that her likeness and voice had for a long time been used without her consent in AI-synthesised videos promoting foods, cookware and cleaning products, most recently a red-date and yam cake sold through Facebook and YouTube adverts. She said she had learned of most of them from viewers or from Taiwan's Ministry of Digital Affairs, which had helped handle dozens of cases; counting her own reports the cases exceeded 100, and some people had still been deceived. She said some viewers who believed she endorsed the products berated her in comments, that the impersonation affected her daily life, and that she felt she had a trauma syndrome. In September 2026 she had told the Liberty Times that since mid-July she had been warning on Facebook about AI-generated videos using her photos and voice. The fact-checking site MyGoPen examined one such item, a 21 September YouTube video presented as her health advice, and found it came from an unofficial channel, that its voice and images were AI-generated, that the video page was labelled as AI-generated content and that the video page had since been suspended by YouTube; her verified Facebook account replied that the channel was a scam. The AI attribution of the product adverts themselves rests on her statements and the outlets' reports.
Core concern Low reported severity Media Coverage
AI involvement reported · Causal attribution supported · 4 sources · 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 unknownRussiaUnidentified video tool
The press service of the Interior Ministry's Primorsky Krai directorate said on 21 October 2026 that it had stopped an online fraud in which scammers used deepfake technology. According to the release, a 77-year-old resident of the Khorolsky district was sent a video-conference link in a messenger app and saw on screen a person resembling the region's governor, who told him of a cyberattack on the regional administration and stolen funds routed abroad through his bank account. He was passed to accomplices posing as law enforcement and financial-monitoring officials, who called him daily for a month and urged him to hand over his savings. He withdrew one million roubles but became suspicious and went to the police, who arrested a courier when he handed her a dummy package. A criminal case for attempted large-scale fraud was opened. The police did not say how they established that a deepfake was used.
Core concern Low reported severity Criminal Charges
AI involvement reported · Causal attribution alleged · 2 sources, 1 underlying account · Added 22/10/2026
Event date unknownEvent location unknownUnidentified voice-cloning tool
The Ministry of Internal Affairs directorate for Russia's Jewish Autonomous Region said on 21 October 2026 that residents increasingly report a combined scam in which messenger accounts are hacked, the chat history deleted, and the victim's contacts called with a voice cloned by neural networks. In the case it describes, a man in Birobidzhan followed a voting link sent from an acquaintance's hacked account. The scammers then gained access to his accounts and called his contacts; according to the police, they imitated his speech using voice-cloning technology based on his previously recorded voice messages. Seven of his acquaintances were misled and one transferred 15,225 roubles. The scammers also gained access to his account on the Gosuslugi state services portal. The police do not say how they established that a cloned voice was used, name a tool, or date the events.
Core concern Low reported severity
AI involvement reported · Causal attribution alleged · 2 sources, 1 underlying account · Added 21/10/2026
Event date unknownSpainUnidentified voice-cloning tool
The Guardia Civil in La Rioja said on 25 August 2026 that it had solved a 'relative in trouble' fraud in which the criminals used artificial intelligence to clone the voice of the victim's daughter. According to the force's account as reported by the newspaper La Rioja and Radio Arnedo, the victim received WhatsApp messages from an unknown number by someone posing as the daughter and asking for urgent money; when the victim called that number to check, a voice that sounded like the daughter answered, and the victim transferred 9,980.25 euros. Investigators of the Guardia Civil's technology team established that the voice had been generated with AI tools. Urgent coordination with the banks froze the funds in the destination account and the full amount was returned to the victim; Radio Arnedo and ActualidadRiojaBaja report that the presumed perpetrator was identified and investigated.
Core concern Low reported severity Investigation Opened
AI involvement reported · Causal attribution supported · 4 sources, 1 underlying account · Added 11/10/2026
Event date unknownIndiaUnidentified voice-cloning tool
Delhi Police arrested five young men in June 2026 who, according to police, cloned the voice of a Mumbai-based private company's managing director using artificial intelligence and called the company's deputy general manager posing as the managing director, directing several fund transfers. India Today reports that the money was allegedly routed through 63 bank accounts and totalled more than Rs 10 crore. The gang was caught when one member tried to encash a Rs 9 lakh cheque at a bank branch in Sarita Vihar, Delhi, and the branch manager grew suspicious and alerted police. Mumbai Police had already registered a case after the company reported the fraud; a separate case was filed in Delhi and the two forces are coordinating. The company and its executives are not named in the report.
Core concern High reported severity Criminal Charges
AI involvement reported · Causal attribution alleged · 2 sources, 1 underlying account · Added 11/10/2026
Event date unknownUnited StatesUnidentified image tool
KHOU reported on 7 October 2026 that a southwest Houston immigration attorney says people have been taking her photographs, altering them with artificial intelligence and using them on Facebook and Instagram to impersonate her office, with her image placed next to other people posing as attorneys. She says her firm has received calls from people who paid money to the impersonators and that she knows of more than 20 people who may have been targeted. One woman, interviewed by KHOU without her identity revealed, said her family lost about $11,000 after she was promised a permit to stay in the United States within a month and attended what the couple believed were meetings with immigration agents; she said she later discovered that the photo was fake and had been made with artificial intelligence. KHOU reports that people who say they lost money reported the alleged scheme to the Houston Police Department, which said the case will be assigned to an investigator; no arrest or platform response is reported, and the AI identification rests on the attorney's and the woman's accounts.
Core concern Medium reported severity Media Coverage
AI involvement reported · Causal attribution alleged · 1 source · Added 08/10/2026
Event date unknownBrazilUnidentified video tool
Three Mato Grosso do Sul outlets, all crediting BNC Notícias, reported on 10 April 2026 that a rural producer from Paraíso das Águas fell for the so-called Viva Sorte scam. In a video call, scammers used AI deepfake technology to simulate the image and voice of Renato Ambrósio, the presenter of the Viva Sorte prize draws, told the farmer a prize had been won and set out steps to release it: Pix transfers, sending the CPF tax number and sharing the phone screen while the banking app was open. The farmer followed the instructions and took out a R$360,000 loan; with interest, the total loss exceeded R$700,000. One report says the farmer gave this account to the police. The farmer is not identified, no date is given and no arrest is reported.
Core concern Medium reported severity Media Coverage
AI involvement reported · Causal attribution alleged · 3 sources, 1 underlying account · Added 04/10/2026
Event date unknownIndonesiaUnidentified voice-cloning tool
Malang Post reported on 2 October 2026 that the head of the Malang office of Indonesia's Financial Services Authority (OJK), speaking on a Radio City Guide FM talk show that day, described the latest case to befall a resident of Malang. According to the report, the perpetrator used AI to clone the voice of the victim's close friend very precisely and called the victim from a new number to ask for a money transfer; the victim believed the voice and lost Rp80 million. No date, police report or arrest is given. The account is the OJK official's as reported by one outlet; the call was not heard and the victim is not identified.
Core concern Low reported severity Media Coverage
AI involvement reported · Causal attribution alleged · 1 source · Added 03/10/2026
Event date unknownSpainUnidentified video tool
Spain's Policía Nacional said on 11 August 2026 that it had arrested in Murcia a suspect who tried to obtain electronic signature certificates in other people's names from a company that issues them. During the company's video identity checks the suspect appeared on camera holding a forged DNI identity card while AI software modified the suspect's face in real time to match the photo on the forged document. Police say the suspect made 38 attempts using the identities of more than 30 real citizens and succeeded in impersonating multiple victims, aiming to use the signatures for later scams. A short processing delay in the face-modification software made the digital mask disappear for barely a second, exposing the suspect's real face to the issuer's security staff.
Core concern Medium reported severity Investigation Opened
AI involvement reported · Causal attribution alleged · 3 sources, 1 underlying account · Added 02/10/2026
Event date unknownItalyUnidentified image tool
Corriere Adriatico reported on 1 October 2026 that a 66-year-old pensioner in Fano answered his landline to a caller posing as a police inspector, who said his car was involved in a jewellery-shop robbery and that he had to check his jewellery at home to avoid legal trouble. The call moved to a video call in which the caller had the Polizia di Stato emblem on screen, which the paper says was created with artificial intelligence. The man showed his gold jewellery piece by piece; while he was kept on the phone, an accomplice came to the door and took all of it, reportedly worth a few thousand euros. He realised it was a scam shortly afterwards and alerted the Carabinieri, who are investigating.
Core concern Medium reported severity Investigation Opened
AI involvement reported · Causal attribution alleged · 1 source · Added 01/10/2026
Event date unknownEvent location unknownUnidentified video tool
El Mirón, the verification section of Criterio.hn, reported on 30 September 2026 that it found three videos on a Facebook profile, altered in image and audio, that use the image of the plastic and reconstructive surgeon Emec Cherenfant to offer a remedy for prostatitis and related problems. In the videos his artificial image says he helped former footballers beat prostatitis without surgery and invites viewers to write to him on WhatsApp. El Mirón says the manipulation is evident from the vocabulary, voice and body movements and that the detector ZeroGPT flagged the videos as AI-made. The hospital where he offers his services told El Mirón the advertising is deceptive. Cherenfant said he has nothing to do with prostate treatment, that scammers repeatedly use his name and image, and that he filed a complaint with the Ministerio Público two years ago. 'Son estafadores. No se dejen engañar, es pura inteligencia artificial', he said. No buyer losses are reported.
Core concern Low reported severity Media Coverage
AI involvement reported · Causal attribution alleged · 1 source · Added 01/10/2026
Event date unknownEvent location unknownUnidentified video tool
Dr. François Marquis, chief of intensive care at Maisonneuve-Rosemont Hospital in Montreal, told CBC News (August 2025) and CTV News and CBC News (September 2026) that AI-generated deepfake videos using his likeness keep appearing on Facebook, selling joint supplements, pills and cancer cures and spreading anti-pharmaceutical claims; the latest offers $1 million to dissatisfied customers. He is not on social media and learns of the videos from people who call him. He recounts that a person who paid hundreds of dollars for pills advertised in one of the videos, and never received them, came into the ICU demanding his money back, which he describes as a security problem for the hospital. He has reported the deepfakes to Quebec's College of Physicians, Montreal police and the platforms, but says new videos keep appearing. The makers of the ads are not identified.
Core concern Low reported severity Media Coverage
AI involvement reported · Causal attribution alleged · 3 sources, 1 underlying account · Added 01/10/2026
Event date unknownAustraliaUnidentified voice-cloning tool
Victoria Police warned, in reports published on 1 October 2026 local time, that fraudsters targeting the state's Mandarin-speaking community are using artificial intelligence to clone the voices of doctors, general practitioners and surgeons, calling victims by their real names and telling them to buy gift cards and text the codes (ABC News, Yahoo News Australia). Police received ten reports in September. In one case, NewsWire reports, the scammer copied the voice of a medical professional the victim knew, and the victim bought $50,000 in gift cards over three days before calling the real practice. In another, a caller posing as a medical professional exploited the victim's urgent health conditions and pressured them until their cash was depleted, a loss of $40,000; police do not say whether that call used a cloned voice. No victim is identified.
Core concern Medium reported severity Media Coverage
AI involvement reported · Causal attribution alleged · 3 sources, 1 underlying account · 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