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Incident 1413: Purported AI-Generated Inland Revenue Scam Ads Reportedly Impersonated New Zealand Commissioner Peter Mersi in Alleged Fake Crypto Tax Webinar

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.

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Alleged: Image generator developers , Deepfake technology developers and Generative AI developers developed an AI system deployed by Unknown advertisers and Scammers, 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: Social media platforms , Image generation technology and Deepfake technology

Incident Stats

Incident ID
1413
Report Count
1
Incident Date
2026-03-05
Editors
Daniel Atherton
Applied Taxonomies
MIT

MIT Taxonomy Classifications

Machine-Classified
Taxonomy Details

Risk Subdomain

A further 23 subdomains create an accessible and understandable classification of hazards and harms associated with AI
 

4.3. Fraud, scams, and targeted manipulation

Risk Domain

The Domain Taxonomy of AI Risks classifies risks into seven AI risk domains: (1) Discrimination & toxicity, (2) Privacy & security, (3) Misinformation, (4) Malicious actors & misuse, (5) Human-computer interaction, (6) Socioeconomic & environmental harms, and (7) AI system safety, failures & limitations.
 
  1. Malicious Actors & Misuse

Entity

Which, if any, entity is presented as the main cause of the risk
 

Human

Timing

The stage in the AI lifecycle at which the risk is presented as occurring
 

Post-deployment

Intent

Whether the risk is presented as occurring as an expected or unexpected outcome from pursuing a goal
 

Intentional

Incident Reports

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+1
Commissioner of Inland Revenue latest scam target
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Commissioner of Inland Revenue latest scam target

Commissioner of Inland Revenue latest scam target

rnz.co.nz

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Commissioner of Inland Revenue latest scam target
rnz.co.nz · 2026

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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