Scammers Sent AI Fake Photos of a Missing Man to His Parents and Demanded $6,000
Criminals used a social media plea about a missing autistic man to generate a fake image of him and threaten his family. It is a preview of where AI-powered extortion is heading.
Key points
- Criminals sent Rakoia Battensoli's parents an AI-generated image of their missing son within hours of a public Facebook appeal posted in early July 2025.
- The message demanded $6,000 within 24 hours and threatened to kill him and "sell his body parts".
- Battensoli, 23, was later found safe in Perth, about 168 kilometres from his home in Bunbury, Western Australia.
- Australia's Scamwatch received 61,400 scam reports this year, with losses topping $94.5 million.
- Western Australia Police warned the public that AI-generated content can appear highly realistic and should not be taken as genuine.
Rakoia Battensoli had been missing for about two weeks when his mother, Montina Delamere, posted a public appeal on social media asking people to look out for him. He has autism, and his family was frightened. Within hours of that post going live, the criminals moved.
Both of Battensoli's parents received a message containing an AI-generated image, meaning a fake photo created by a computer program, of their son. The message read: "You gonna wire us $6,000 within 24 hrs or we cut off his neck and sell his body parts."
Battensoli was found safe and well. The threat was fiction. But the fear his mother felt was entirely real.
"I was worried for my baby," Ms Delamere told ABC News Australia. "But there's people out there that would be in turmoil and they would probably send people like that the money."
She is right about that.
How did the criminals pull this off so quickly?
They scraped the family's public social media post, fed the details and any available photos into an AI image tool, and had a personalised threat ready in minutes. No technical skill required. No large criminal budget needed.
University of New South Wales cognitive psychologist James Dunn says this is exactly the shift AI has enabled. "It lowers the cost for these scammers to make these scams feel personal," he said. The old template was a generic "Nigerian Prince" email sent to millions. The new version uses your child's name, your phone number, and a convincing fake photo of someone you love.
The failure mode here is obvious: a single public post containing a person's name, photo, and location history is all the raw material a criminal needs today.
Retired detective and e-safety expert Kristi McVee called it a "massive issue". The mother, she noted, was already a victim of a frightening situation. The scammers turned her into a second-time victim before her son was even found.
If you or someone you know posts a public appeal about a missing person, consider keeping identifying photos off public-facing posts where possible, and route tips through police rather than a personal phone number. If you receive a threatening message demanding money, call police before you do anything else. Do not send money.
Western Australia Police put it plainly: AI-generated content can look highly realistic. Do not accept it as proof of anything.
One-sentence operational takeaway: a public post asking for help is also a data feed for anyone willing to misuse it.
