Incident 1090: Reported AI-Generated Clickbait Targets Adolescents in Rockingham County, North Carolina

Description: An alleged AI-enabled scam targeting teens in Rockingham County, North Carolina, reportedly used fake headlines and a local student's likeness to lure users to malicious websites. According to the sheriff's office and Proxyware, the campaign involved nearly 100 sites linked to a centralized operation in South Africa. Once users were identified as students or locals, the sites reportedly deployed harmful ads or malware. Authorities warn of sensational content used to manipulate users.

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Incident Stats

Incident ID
1090
Report Count
3
Incident Date
2025-05-30
Editors
Daniel Atherton
Dangerous AI scam lures students with fake headlines, warns Rockingham County Sheriff
wfmynews2.com · 2025

ROCKINGHAM COUNTY, N.C. --- A new online scam that uses fake, AI-generated headlines to lure local students to dangerous websites is making the rounds, the Rockingham County Sheriff's Office warned parents and teens in a Facebook post on Fr…

Internet Sensationalized News Scam Targeting Teenagers and Local Residents of Rockingham County
facebook.com · 2025

A concerning online campaign targeting students and teenagers in Rockingham County has been identified. This campaign uses AI-created clickbait to lure individuals to websites that deploy harmful pop-up advertisements or launch malicious at…

Internet Sensationalized News Scam Targeting Teenagers and Local Residents of Rockingham County
nextdoor.com · 2025

A concerning online campaign targeting students and teenagers in Rockingham County has been identified. This campaign uses AI-created clickbait to lure individuals to websites that deploy harmful pop-up advertisements or launch malicious at…

Variants

A "variant" is an incident that shares the same causative factors, produces similar harms, and involves the same intelligent systems as a known AI incident. Rather than index variants as entirely separate incidents, we list variations of incidents under the first similar incident submitted to the database. Unlike other submission types to the incident database, variants are not required to have reporting in evidence external to the Incident Database. Learn more from the research paper.

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