AI Voice-Cloning Used in Romance Scam Ring in Taipei
A romance scam ring in Taipei led by Huang Jianhao used AI voice-cloning technology to impersonate women on dating websites, converting male operators' voices into gentle female voices for real-time phone calls with victims. After building emotional connection, the ring deployed actual female escorts who directed victims to cooperating businesses that charged inflated prices, extracting substantial sums before police arrested members and seized assets including luxury vehicles and watches.
What happened
Huang Jianhao and associates operated a romance scam ring since 2019, using AI voice-cloning technology to impersonate women on dating websites. Male chat operators engaged victims in romantic conversation while AI software converted their voices in real-time into gentle female voices.
After building emotional connection, the ring deployed actual female escorts to meet victims and directed them to cooperating beauty salons, tattoo shops and pawnbrokers for a coordinated "strip" operation, with staff charging inflated prices on credit cards.
Reported impact
Victims were deceived into purchases and money transfers through the coordinated scam operations across multiple businesses.
Index analysis
The scam exploited the combination of AI-generated female voices and in-person female escorts to deceive victims, with coordinated participation from legitimate businesses in a supply chain.
Governance controls
Police conducted two waves of searches and arrests of ring members and cooperating vendors. The Taipei District Prosecutors Office obtained detention orders for Huang Jianhao and other members.
Classification
Sources and evidence
This record was researched and written by the Index, based on the following original reporting.