HISPI Project Cerebellum HISPI PROJECT CEREBELLUM

Purported Deepfake Investment Video Reportedly Used in Scam That Defrauded Turkish Couple of 1.5 Million Lira (~$35,000 USD)

December 26, 2025

A Turkish couple, Ismail and Hale Kereci, reportedly lost 1.5 million lira (~$35,000 USD) in a deepfake investment scam on Facebook. The scammers allegedly used an AI-generated video to establish credibility before guiding the victims through staged investment steps involving fees, forced loans, and unauthorized bank transfers. The couple filed a criminal complaint, citing severe financial harm and emotional distress. This incident underscores the importance of trustworthy AI and effective governance. JOIN US at HISPI Project Cerebellum to help establish guardrails for AI, ensuring safe and secure practices.

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Alleged deployer
unknown-scammers
Alleged developer
unknown-voice-cloning-technology-developers, unknown-deepfake-technology-developers
Alleged harmed parties
isa-kereci, investors, hale-kereci, general-public-of-turkey, general-public, epistemic-integrity

Source

Data from the AI Incident Database (AIID). Cite this incident: https://incidentdatabase.ai/cite/1319

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.