Description: Yahoo Boys (from Nigeria and Ghana) and scammers from Morocco are reportedly targeting U.S. widows and vulnerable individuals using AI-generated images and fake military profiles in "Artificial Patriot" scams. They have allegedly impersonated military officials such as General Matthew W. McFarlane to gain trust, sharing fabricated backstories and emotional appeals. Once trust is established, they request money through untraceable methods.
Editor Notes: The Yahoo Boys are reportedly not so much a centralized group as a loosely connected network of individuals and small clusters engaging in cybercrime schemes. In French-language reporting, they are usually referred to as "brouteurs," while in English-language reporting, they are often identified as "Yahoo Boys." While the Yahoo Boys have reportedly been experimenting with deepfake technology since sometime in 2021 or 2022, the incident date of 09/23/2024 is based off of initial reporting on American Patriot scams. See Incident 911 for more general reporting on Yahoo Boys using deepfakes for romance scams. See Incident 901 for a specific example of how three Yahoo Boys allegedly defrauded a French woman of $850,000 by posing as Brad Pitt. See Incident 913 for information pertaining to their use of AI to allegedly impersonate news organizations to blackmail victims.
Entities
View all entitiesAlleged: Deepfake technology developers and Synthetic audio generation technology developers developed an AI system deployed by Yahoo Boys , Scammers from West Africa , Scammers from Morocco , Scammers from Ghana , Brouteurs and Scammers in Nigeria, which harmed Widows , Matthew W. McFarlane , Impersonated American military officials , Emotionally vulnerable individuals , American widows , Epistemic integrity and National security and intelligence stakeholders.
Alleged implicated AI systems: Deepfake technology and Synthetic audio generation technology
Incident Stats
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.
- 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
Reports Timeline
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Foreign scammers are using artificial intelligence to craft highly convincing fake military profiles, targeting some of the most vulnerable members of society---U.S. widows. These so-called "Artificial Patriots" prey on the emotions and tru…
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ATLANTA (InvestigateTV) --- The double-amputee soldier holds a cake and asks for birthday wishes. Patriotic Americans like, comment, and share the post with their followers.
But the soldier isn't real. He was created by artificial intellige…
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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