Description: A Brazilian bricklayer reportedly traveled over 2,000km from Imperatriz, Maranhão, to Belo Horizonte, Minas Gerais, after believing videos of a purportedly AI-generated woman offering a relationship and life on a farm. He exhausted his money on lodging and needed municipal help to return home. The profile operator later denied having private conversations with him. The identity of the operator and the generation tool were not established.
Entities
View all entitiesAlleged: Synthetic video generation technology developers and Synthetic media generation technology developers developed an AI system deployed by Synthetic media creators , Scammers in Brazil , Scammers and Romance scammers, which harmed Victims of romance scams in Brazil , Victims of romance scams , Social media users , Men and boys , Men , Epistemic integrity , Edimar Rocha Martins and Construction workers.
Alleged implicated AI systems: Synthetic video generation technology and Synthetic media technology
Incident Stats
Incident ID
1767
Report Count
1
Incident Date
2026-10-09
Editors
Daniel Atherton
Incident Reports
Reports Timeline
Loading...
Bricklayer Edimar Rocha Martins, 49, left the city of Imperatriz, in Maranhão, and traveled more than 2,000 kilometers to Belo Horizonte, the capital of Minas Gerais, believing he would be living with a woman he had fallen in love with onli…
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.
Seen something similar?
