DeepfakeHigh
Italian Mediaset Journalist Safiria Leccese's Image Was Reportedly Used in a Purportedly AI-Generated Fake Loan Scam
- Occurred
- May 31, 2026
- Published
- May 31, 2026
- Source
- AI Incident Database
Summary
Italian media reported that scammers purportedly used AI to create fake social media profiles and a video impersonating Mediaset journalist Safiria Leccese, using her image and footage associated with her political-interview program Super Partes to promote a personal loan. Leccese said several people were deceived within an hour. After she contacted postal police, two additional fake profiles using her image were reportedly found and blocked.
Developers
- Deepfake technology developers
- Synthetic audio generation technology developers
Deployers
- Scammers
Harmed parties
- Safiria Leccese
- Privacy
- Mediaset
- Epistemic integrity
Classification
Category confidence: 95%
Severity confidence: 90%
Rationale: AI-generated impersonation used for financial fraud causing immediate harm to victims.
Classifier: Qwen/Qwen3.5-35B-A3B-FP8