Recently, it has been revealed that a 65-year-old woman in mainland China used AI photo editing and scene synthesis to impersonate a “post-90s female doctor” and engage in an online relationship with a man in Shanghai, allegedly deceiving him of 170,000 Chinese yuan over a period of 5 months.
According to reports from Chinese media, a man in Shanghai, identified as Liu Hui, met a woman who introduced herself as Yu Xiuzhen on a social platform. She claimed to have been born in 1992 and to be a doctor at a top-tier hospital, capable of introducing hospital property engineering projects.
Yu’s account had over 10,000 followers and she had posted nearly 7,000 “daily life” videos. Liu, who worked in property engineering contracting, hoped to secure projects through her and their relationship eventually developed into an online romance.
Police stated that Yu was actually born in 1961, lacked the qualifications of a doctor, and had previously worked in hospital logistics and sanitation. She used AI editing and scene synthesis to create videos, disguising herself as a young female doctor, while maintaining ambiguous relationships with over a dozen individuals.
Reports indicated that some videos had a small disclaimer in the corner stating “This work contains AI-generated content,” but the font size was inconspicuous. Liu had not paid attention to these clues before, nor did he understand AI synthesized videos.
During their relationship, Yu used multiple accounts to impersonate both the “female doctor” and her own mother. Using her mother’s supposed disapproval as an excuse, she requested 300,000 yuan in betrothal gifts and other expenses such as buying a house in Shanghai.
Despite both being in Shanghai, they never met in person during the 5-month relationship. When Liu suggested video calls, Yu always refused, claiming her mother was present overseeing the interactions.
Police revealed that Yu’s mother had passed away long ago, and the supposed “interference from the mother” was fabricated by Yu to avoid meeting and conceal her true identity.
Over the 5 months, Yu managed to coax Liu into transferring a total of 170,000 yuan under the pretense of project arrangements and daily expenses. As the promised engineering projects never materialized, Liu eventually reported the situation to the authorities.
Authorities stated that Yu allegedly used the ill-gotten money for cosmetic procedures and clothing. She had previously been sentenced to 4 years and 6 months in prison in 2009 for fraud and is currently under criminal detention for suspected fraud.
Commenting on the case, a critic from “Extreme News,” Qu Jing, pointed out that while scammers in the past relied on photo editing, voice changers, and storytelling to weave lies, AI now enables the rapid creation of videos, lowering the barrier for deception.
Qu Jing believes that clear images and cohesive daily life scenes make it harder to discern truth from falsehood through screens.
This incident has raised concerns among netizens about the credibility of online images. Some have lamented that while they used to believe “seeing is believing,” even daily life videos could now be fake. Others questioned why, despite being in the same city, the couple never met in person or had video calls after months of online interaction, yet transfers of money continued unabated.