GCD AI RADAR
incidents/AIR-2025-0170

Chatbots Allegedly Used in Romance Scams Targeting New Zealand Dating App Users

AI-enabled attack3 Confirmed exploitationAI phishing / social engineering

Scammers reportedly deployed AI chatbots in romance scams targeting dating app users in New Zealand. Victims engaged in virtual relationships and suffered financial losses.

Details

type
AI-enabled attack
Attackers used AI as a meaningful part of a cyberattack against someone else.
categories
  • AI phishing / social engineering
    Phishing, lures and social engineering produced or personalised at scale with AI.
owasp llm top 10
no entry for these categories
mitre atlas
Both rows are derived from the type and categories (OWASP 2025 edition, ATLAS release 2026.09), not classified per record. How
severity
3 · Confirmed exploitation
Used against real targets; limited or unclear impact.
targets
Individuals
products
dating app chatbots
incident date
4 Feb 2025
first reported
4 Feb 2025
origin
AI Incident Database
Derived from the AI Incident Database (CC BY-SA 4.0).
classifier confidence
0.85 · published at or above 0.80; see the methodology
tags
romance-scam · chatbot · social-engineering
record
created 2026-10-18 06:33Z · updated 2026-10-18 06:59Z · json

Sources · 1

  1. 2025-02-04
    Chatbots Allegedly Used in Romance Scams Targeting Nearly One-Third of New Zealand's Dating App Users
    AI Incident Database · incidentdatabase.ai/cite/954

Titles and links belong to their publishers. The summary above is written by GCD AI RADAR in its own words; data is CC BY-SA 4.0.

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