HISPI Project Cerebellum HISPI PROJECT CEREBELLUM

Bolivian Criminal Network Allegedly Used Deepfake of Education Minister to Defraud at Least 19 Victims in Employment Scam

February 10, 2025

A Bolivian criminal network allegedly used AI-generated deepfake audio of Education Minister Omar Véliz Ramos to impersonate him in a scam, defrauding at least 19 victims through a fake job scheme. Scammers reportedly lured applicants via social media, used cloned voices for credibility, and demanded payment via QR codes. The authorities uncovered the scheme, seizing devices and arresting multiple suspects, including one orchestrating the fraud from prison. The losses are estimated to exceed $720,000 USD. This incident underscores the need for trustworthy AI governance, especially in areas where AI-powered deepfakes can compromise safety and security.

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Matched TAIM controls

Suggested mapping from embedding similarity (not a formal assessment). Browse all TAIM controls

Alleged deployer
scammers-impersonating-omar-veliz-ramos, alfredo-ch.-s., vilma-c.c., luis-g.c., jackelin-a.m., mariana-a.s., unknown-scammers
Alleged developer
unknown-deepfake-technology-developers, unknown-voice-cloning-technology-developers
Alleged harmed parties
omar-veliz-ramos, ministry-of-education-of-bolivia, at-least-19-bolivian-citizens-seeking-employment, general-public-of-bolivia, unnamed-servicio-departamental-de-salud-(sedes)-potosi-official

Source

Data from the AI Incident Database (AIID). Cite this incident: https://incidentdatabase.ai/cite/937

Data source

Incident data is from the AI Incident Database (AIID).

When citing the database as a whole, please use:

McGregor, S. (2021) Preventing Repeated Real World AI Failures by Cataloging Incidents: The AI Incident Database. In Proceedings of the Thirty-Third Annual Conference on Innovative Applications of Artificial Intelligence (IAAI-21). Virtual Conference.

Pre-print on arXiv · Database snapshots & citation guide

We use weekly snapshots of the AIID for stable reference. For the official suggested citation of a specific incident, use the “Cite this incident” link on each incident page.