Online Scammers Tricked People into Sending Money Using AI Images of Earthquake in Turkey

AI-generated images depicting earthquakes and rescues were posted on social media platforms by scammers who tricked people into sending funds to their crypto wallets disguised as donation links for the 2023 Turkey–Syria earthquake.

Risk classification

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

Scammers used AI-generated imagery to deceive donors into sending funds to fraudulent accounts, exploiting a humanitarian crisis for personal financial gain.

Additional risk subdomains

• 3.1 False or misleading information: The AI system was used to generate a fabricated image of a rescue that did not occur, creating misleading visual evidence to deceive the public.

Causal factors

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

The scam was intentionally executed by human actors who chose to use Midjourney-generated images to defraud donors after the AI model was deployed.

EU AI Act risk tier

• Risk tier: 3 Limited Risk

Risk Level 3. Limited Risk: The report describes the use of Midjourney to generate AI-generated content (deepfakes/synthetic images), which falls under transparency obligations for AI-generated content.

AI system and alleged parties

• AI system: Midjourney
• AI purpose: Image Generation; Deepfake Image Generation
• Behaviour type: Tool
• Alleged developer: unknown
• Alleged deployer: unknown
• Alleged harmed parties: social media users, 2023 Turkey–Syria earthquake victims

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 Negligible, 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

Epistemic

Reported: The report describes the creation and viral spread of a fabricated AI image depicting a firefighter rescuing a child in the earthquake aftermath.

Directly caused: An AI-generated image of a Greek firefighter rescuing a child was widely shared on Twitter, misleading users into believing it was a real photo from the Turkey-Syria earthquake.

Inferred additional harm: The proliferation of realistic AI-generated disaster images contributes to a broader erosion of trust in visual media during humanitarian crises.

People affected

• Occurrences reported: 1
• People reportedly harmed: 10
• People reportedly exposed: 1000

Potential causes

Management

• Inadequate Platform Safeguards: Social media management failed to block synthetic media scam campaigns.

Technology

• Generative AI Image Software: Midjourney was used to create a fake, deceptive image of a firefighter.
• Flawed AI Image Generation: The generator made mistakes, rendering a firefighter with six fingers.
• Automated Translation Tools: Scammers used Google Translate to communicate and maintain their deception.

Data Inputs

• Deceptive Text Prompts: Specific prompts were input to generate highly emotional disaster imagery.

Human Factors

• Exploitation of Human Empathy: Scammers used AI images to prey on the generosity of online donors.
• Manual Detection Reliance: Platform relied on users to spot AI artifacts like the extra finger.

Process and Methods

• Weak AI Content Moderation: Platforms lacked automated processes to flag synthetic media in scams.

Regulatory Environment

• Lack of AI Labeling Mandates: No regulations exist to force labeling of AI-generated images.

Information quality

• Classification confidence: High
• Reason for confidence: The report clearly identifies the AI system (Midjourney), how the image was created, and how it was used by scammers to solicit fake donations.
• Ambiguities identified: It is slightly unclear how many of the 100+ fake PayPal fundraisers specifically used the AI-generated firefighter image versus other non-AI scam methods.

Scammers utilized Midjourney to generate realistic synthetic images of disaster rescue scenes to solicit fraudulent donations following the 2023 Turkey-Syria earthquake. This incident represents a minor national security threat, categorized primarily as an evolved cyber-fraud capability that exploits public empathy and erodes trust in visual information during crises.

• Overall national security impact: Minor
• Scope: Multiple nations
• Primary target: No clear primary
• Other affected: Turkey, Syria, Greece
• Alleged perpetrator: Unknown

Threat characteristics

• Imminence: Long-term. Represents an ongoing strategic concern regarding the proliferation of synthetic media for fraud rather than an active, imminent national crisis.
• Autonomy: Human-controlled. The AI tool Midjourney was directly prompted and controlled by human scammers to generate specific static images.
• Novelty: Evolved capability. Leverages modern generative AI to quickly produce realistic synthetic images for crisis exploitation, evolving traditional photo-manipulation scams.

Impact by dimension

• Physical security: Negligible. No physical systems, critical infrastructure, or military assets were compromised or targeted in this incident.
• Information security: Minor. Involves the creation and dissemination of synthetic media to deceive the public, though focused on financial fraud rather than coordinated state-sponsored disinformation.
• Sovereignty: Negligible. No core government functions, electoral systems, or sovereign decision-making processes were affected by this financial scam.
• Economic security: Negligible. Financial impact was limited to minor individual donations and does not threaten strategic economic or technological security.
• Societal stability: Minor. Exploitation of public empathy during a natural disaster and erosion of trust in humanitarian visual media represent minor societal impact.