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

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.

Risk classification

• Primary risk domain: 4 Malicious actors
• Primary risk subdomain: 4.3 Fraud, scams, and targeted manipulation

The scammers used AI-generated likenesses and messages to impersonate a public official and run a fraudulent crypto tax scam to steal personal information.

Additional risk subdomains

• 2.1 Compromise of privacy by obtaining, leaking or correctly inferring sensitive information: The scam campaign specifically targeted the New Zealand public to trick them into disclosing sensitive personal information for identity theft.

Causal factors

• Entity: Human
• Intent: Intentional
• Timing: Post-deployment

The incident was caused by human scammers intentionally deploying AI-generated content to defraud the public.

EU AI Act risk tier

• Risk tier: 3 Limited Risk

Limited Risk: The report describes the use of 'artificially generated likenesses' and 'AI generated images', which fall under the category of AI-generated content such as deepfakes.

AI system and alleged parties

• AI system: None named
• AI purpose: Deepfake Image Generation; Social Media Content Generation
• Behaviour type: Tool
• Alleged developer: Unknown image generator developers, Unknown generative AI developers, Unknown deepfake technology developers
• Alleged deployer: Unknown scammers, Unknown advertisers
• Alleged 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

Harm severity

Severity ratings are based on this scale.

Highest direct severity in any category: Minor. Severity is scored from Negligible to Catastrophic in each harm category, for harm the reports describe as caused directly or indirectly by the AI system.

• Physical: direct Negligible, indirect Negligible
• Infrastructure: direct Negligible, indirect Negligible
• Property: direct Negligible, indirect Negligible
• Financial: direct Negligible, indirect Negligible
• Environmental: direct Negligible, indirect Negligible
• Malicious content: direct Minor, indirect Negligible
• Differential treatment: direct Negligible, indirect Negligible
• Civil rights: direct Negligible, indirect Negligible
• Democracy: direct Negligible, indirect Negligible
• Privacy: direct Negligible, indirect Negligible
• Psychological: direct Negligible, indirect Negligible
• Epistemic: direct Minor, indirect Negligible
• Child sexual exploitation and abuse: direct Negligible, indirect Negligible

Malicious content

Reported: Yes, the report describes the creation of malicious scam advertisements using AI-generated images and messaging.

Directly caused: Scammers created and distributed fake ads on Meta platforms impersonating the IR Commissioner to promote a fake webinar.

Inferred additional harm: The ads likely reached thousands of social media users in New Zealand before being taken down.

Epistemic

Reported: Yes, the report describes the use of false, AI-generated images and messaging to impersonate a public official and create fake news stories.

Directly caused: Scammers generated fake images of Commissioner Peter Mersi and fabricated RNZ news stories to deceive the public.

Inferred additional harm: This contributes to a broader erosion of public trust in official communications from government departments like Inland Revenue and news organizations like RNZ.

People affected

• Occurrences reported: 1
• People reportedly exposed: 3000

Potential causes

Management

• Under-resourced Ad Moderation: Insufficient investment in tools to permanently block recurring scams.

Technology

• Generative AI Impersonation: AI tools enable easy creation of fake images and deepfakes of public figures.
• Algorithmic Targeting: Algorithms push scam ads to users based on their search history.
• Weak Automated Detection: Platform moderation fails to detect slightly altered re-uploaded ads.

Data Inputs

• Public Likeness Exploitation: Scammers harvest public photos and logos to train and generate fake ads.
• Search History Data Profiling: Platforms feed sensitive search data into recommendation algorithms.

Human Factors

• Trust in Authority Figures: Users trust messages impersonating well-known figures like the Commissioner.
• Urgency of Tax Deadlines: Scammers exploit taxpayer anxiety during critical tax periods.

Process and Methods

• Reactive Take-Down Process: Platforms only remove malicious ads after receiving external notifications.
• Inadequate Re-upload Blocking: Slightly altered scam ads reappear the next day after being taken down.

Regulatory Environment

• Weak Platform Liability: Lack of strict regulations holding platforms liable for hosting scam ads.

Information quality

• Classification confidence: High
• Reason for confidence: The report clearly outlines the nature of the scam, the impersonation of the Commissioner, and the use of AI-generated content. While the exact AI model is unknown, the classification of the risk domain and behavior is highly straightforward based on the provided text.
• Ambiguities identified: The report states the images are 'probably AI generated' rather than confirming the exact technology used.

Scammers used AI-generated images to impersonate New Zealand's Inland Revenue Commissioner in a fraudulent crypto tax campaign aimed at identity theft. This incident represents a minor national security threat, reflecting an evolved capability in financial fraud and public official impersonation, but without systemic impacts on critical infrastructure, sovereignty, or state stability.

• Overall national security impact: Minor
• Scope: Single nation
• Primary target: New Zealand
• Alleged perpetrator: Unknown

Threat characteristics

• Imminence: Long-term. This represents an ongoing, strategic concern regarding the proliferation of AI-assisted fraud rather than an active, imminent national security crisis.
• Autonomy: Human-controlled. The AI was used purely as a static tool by human scammers to generate false images and text, with humans executing and managing the campaign.
• Novelty: Evolved capability. The incident represents a significant advancement of traditional phishing scams through the integration of highly realistic AI-generated likenesses of government figures.

Impact by dimension

• Physical security: Negligible. No physical systems, critical infrastructure, or human safety elements were targeted or affected by this digital scam campaign.
• Information security: Minor. Scammers utilized AI-generated synthetic media to impersonate a public official. While involving deepfakes, it remains a localized financial fraud campaign rather than a coordinated state-sponsored information operation.
• Sovereignty: Minor. The campaign impersonated the Inland Revenue Commissioner and used fraudulent department branding, which risks eroding public trust in official government communications but did not disrupt core operations.
• Economic security: Minor. The incident is part of a broader trend of AI-enabled financial scams causing cumulative losses, but this specific campaign does not threaten strategic industries or macro-financial system stability.
• Societal stability: Minor. The phishing campaign targeted citizens to harvest personal data and commit identity theft, causing individual financial harm but not systemic societal instability or human rights violations.