DeepfakeHigh
Purported AI-Generated Inland Revenue Scam Ads Reportedly Impersonated New Zealand Commissioner Peter Mersi in Alleged Fake Crypto Tax Webinar
- Occurred
- Mar 5, 2026
- Published
- Mar 5, 2026
- Source
- AI Incident Database
Summary
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.
Developers
- Deepfake technology developers
- Generative AI developers
- Synthetic image generation technology developers
Deployers
- Unknown advertisers
- Scammers
Harmed parties
- Social media users in New Zealand
- Peter Mersi
- New Zealand taxpayers
- New Zealand Inland Revenue
- General public of New Zealand
- General public
- Epistemic integrity
Classification
Category confidence: 90%
Severity confidence: 85%
Rationale: AI-generated likeness used in scam to deceive victims into disclosing personal information.
Classifier: Qwen/Qwen3.5-35B-A3B-FP8