Businessman Accuses Woman of Using AI to Create Fake Messages for Extortion
A businessman in Turkey was accused of threatening and insulting a woman via WhatsApp messages. He denies the allegations and claims the message screenshots submitted as evidence were created using AI tools as part of an extortion scheme in which the accuser demanded money to drop the case.
What happened
S.M., a resident of Diyarbakır, filed a criminal complaint with the Diyarbakır Public Prosecutor's Office accusing businessman Hikmet Öztürk of threatening and insulting her via WhatsApp messages, submitting screenshots of the conversations as evidence.
Öztürk denied knowing S.M. and claimed the WhatsApp message screenshots presented as evidence were created using AI-powered online tools and were fabricated. Öztürk's attorney Mustafa Emir Arslan stated that the conversations submitted to the prosecutor were generated using AI.
S.M. allegedly demanded money from Öztürk to drop the case, initially requesting 20,000 lira and later increasing the demand to 100,000 lira. Öztürk filed a counter-complaint against S.M.
Reported impact
Öztürk stated he had no relationship with S.M. and had never traveled to Diyarbakır, but faced a formal investigation based on fabricated evidence.
Index analysis
The case involves the fraudulent use of AI technology to generate fake digital communications that were then presented as authentic evidence in a criminal proceeding to extort money from the targeted individual.
Classification
Sources and evidence
This record was researched and written by the Index, based on the following original reporting.