Description: New Zealand Inland Revenue warned that scammers used a purported AI-generated likeness of Commissioner Peter Mersi with alleged false Inland Revenue branding, as well as misleading social media ads, to promote an allegedly fake webinar on crypto tax changes. The campaign allegedly sought to trick people into disclosing personal information.
Entities
View all entitiesAlleged: Unknown image generator developers , Unknown generative AI developers and Unknown deepfake technology developers developed an AI system deployed by Unknown scammers and Unknown advertisers, which harmed Social media users in New Zealand , Peter Mersi , New Zealand taxpayers , New Zealand Inland Revenue , General public of New Zealand , General public and Epistemic integrity.
Alleged implicated AI systems: Unknown image generator technology , Unknown deepfake technology and Social media platforms
Incident Stats
Incident ID
1413
Report Count
1
Incident Date
2026-03-05
Editors
Daniel Atherton
Incident Reports
Reports Timeline
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Even the Commissioner of Inland Revenue cannot avoid being a target for scammers.
The tax department on Thursday warned that people needed to be wary of social media scams impersonating well-known New Zealanders, including commissioner Pete…
Variants
A "variant" is an AI incident similar to a known case—it has the same causes, harms, and AI system. Instead of listing it separately, we group it under the first reported incident. Unlike other incidents, variants do not need to have been reported outside the AIID. Learn more from the research paper.
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