Bolivian Criminal Network Allegedly Used Deepfake of Education Minister to Defraud at Least 19 Victims in Employment Scam
Description
A Bolivian criminal network allegedly used AI-generated deepfake audio of Education Minister Omar Véliz Ramos to impersonate him in phone calls, defrauding at least 19 victims in a fake job scheme. Scammers reportedly lured applicants via social media, used cloned voices for credibility, and demanded payment via QR codes. Authorities uncovered the scheme, seizing devices and arresting multiple suspects, including one orchestrating the fraud from prison. Losses reportedly exceed $720,000 USD.
Actors
Alleged Deployers
- vilma-c.c.
- scammers-impersonating-omar-veliz-ramos
- scammers
- mariana-a.s.
- luis-g.c.
- jackelin-a.m.
- alfredo-ch.-s.
Alleged Developers
- synthetic-audio-generation-technology-developers
- deepfake-technology-developers
Harmed Parties
- unnamed-servicio-departamental-de-salud-(sedes)-potosi-official
- omar-veliz-ramos
- ministry-of-education-of-bolivia
- general-public-of-bolivia
- at-least-19-bolivian-citizens-seeking-employment
- targets-of-fraudulent-professional-opportunities
Classification
Risk Domain
Malicious Actors & MisuseRisk Subdomain
4.3. Fraud, scams, and targeted manipulation
MIT Risk Profile
Source
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Research Papers on This Topic
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AgentHarm: A Benchmark for Measuring Harmfulness of LLM Agents
Regulating ChatGPT and other Large Generative AI Models
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