HISPI Project Cerebellum HISPI PROJECT CEREBELLUM

Michigan Woman Defrauded in Alleged Tinder Romance Scam Using Purportedly AI-Generated Video Calls

February 10, 2025

A Michigan resident, Beth Hyland, was allegedly defrauded of $26,000 in a romance scam on Tinder. The perpetrator, 'Richard', employed purported AI-generated video technology during Skype calls to foster trust. This scam, linked to Nigerian Yahoo Boys networks, involved a false identity as a French construction manager requiring funds for legal and translation services. Hyland unwittingly sent funds over several months. She subsequently testified at a U.S. Senate hearing on dating app fraud. This incident underscores the importance of responsible AI governance and the need for trustworthy AI to prevent such harmful practices. For those interested in shaping the future of safe and secure AI, consider joining HISPI Project Cerebellum TAIM (Govern) to map, measure, manage, and mitigate such incidents.

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Alleged deployer
["yahoo-boys","unknown-scammer-\"richard\""""]"
Alleged developer
unknown-voice-cloning-technology, unknown-deepfake-technology-developers
Alleged harmed parties
tinder, beth-hyland

Source

Data from the AI Incident Database (AIID). Cite this incident: https://incidentdatabase.ai/cite/1105

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.