On September 22, state media exposed a case involving a married middle-aged woman who leveraged AI face-swapping and audio synthesis technology to craft a fraudulent persona, defrauding her online romantic partner of more than 130,000 yuan. This represents a typical new-wave romance scam built on cutting-edge tech.

The defendant, Sun Moufang, first crossed paths with the victim, Li Mou, six years ago while playing an online game, where they added each other and began a virtual relationship. To win Li's trust, Sun—who in reality faced financial hardship, was married, and had two children—used AI-enhanced tools to meticulously construct a flawless image of a wealthy, elegant young woman, kickstarting a multi-year deceptive online courtship.

A criminal court judge from the People's Court of Ningyang County, Tai'an City, stated that Sun told Li during their chats that she worked as an accountant for her family's business empire, claiming her father and brother ran large enterprises. She even forged an ID card featuring a youthful, attractive photo, which was fabricated using AI. Sun, who was ordinary in appearance, transformed herself into a glamorous heiress in her twenties from an affluent family. To further cement Li's trust, she used AI synthesis software to animate the fake ID photo into dynamic video clips for video calls with him.

Throughout their six-year virtual romance, Sun persistently maintained this high-society persona, leaving the naive Li completely convinced of her fabricated wealthy background. Despite living in different cities, Li, overwhelmed by longing for his supposed girlfriend, repeatedly requested in-person meetings. Sun postponed and rejected these requests by citing reasons such as her father being a tycoon, Li's lack of stable employment and modest family background, and her family's disapproval of their relationship.

By November 2024, Sun, overwhelmed by long-term credit card overspending and mounting online loan debts she couldn't repay, hatched a plan to extort money from Li. She then repeatedly solicited funds from him, who had fallen deep into her emotional trap, under various pretexts such as needing to pay her father's social security contributions, settling external debts without family knowledge, covering medical expenses for an illness, and purchasing an Apple phone for a self-media startup. Over roughly half a year, Li transferred more than 130,000 yuan to Sun on numerous occasions.

To convince Li of her ability to repay, Sun fabricated a story and used audio synthesis software to create a fake recording of a conversation with her supposed older brother, claiming their father's factory was about to be demolished by the government and that she would receive 600,000 yuan in compensation. The scam unraveled when a debt collection agency called Li directly, as Sun had defaulted on her online loans. Under Li's questioning, he discovered that his "heiress" girlfriend of six years had been fabricating her identity all along to defraud him of both affection and money.

When Li confronted Sun and demanded repayment, she simply blocked and deleted him. Li subsequently filed a report with the police. The court ruled that Sun, with the intent of illegal possession, fabricated her identity background, concealed her marital status and real living conditions, and used AI face-swapping and audio synthesis techniques to forge a persona and fake repayment ability, persistently deceiving others out of large sums of money, constituting fraud. Considering her voluntary surrender, guilty plea, sincere remorse, and active restitution of the stolen funds, the court sentenced Sun to three years in prison, suspended for four years, and imposed a fine of 20,000 yuan.

A judge's warning highlights that as AI synthesis technology evolves rapidly, fraud tactics are continuously upgrading. Traditional online romance scams now wear a high-tech cloak, where even video and audio can be forged. Netizens are urged to abandon the outdated belief that "seeing is believing," maintain a firm boundary when it comes to their finances, and stay vigilant to avoid falling prey to such schemes.