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Thai police arrest 6 Nigerians running AI scams targeting older women

Thai police arrest 6 Nigerians running AI scams targeting older women

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The Thai police force has successfully uncovered an AI-enabled romance scam being run by six men from Nigeria using a luxury riverside condominium in Nonthaburi. This operation took place on Friday, May 22, 2026, highlighting the growing trend of using artificial intelligence to facilitate fraudulent activities.

Police forces under the Metropolitan Police Bureau seized three condominiums in Bang Kraso, Muang, located close to the Phra Nang Klao Bridge.

Thai police raid the riverside condominium in an attempt to protect citizens

The raid, referred to by its code name “Dark Room Crackdown,” was carried out against a group that held student visas but showed no signs of having attended any lessons or worked.

The crackdown took an unexpected turn when the suspects tried to avoid opening the doors; this led to forced entry due to suspicions that they were attempting to destroy potential evidence. 

One individual tried to escape through the balcony, while another was discovered hiding in a bathroom, attempting to send messages. All six Nigerians between the ages of 23 and 35 were arrested.

According to reports, these Nigerians impersonated foreigners who appeared to be prosperous and well-to-do in their profiles, such as pilots, American military personnel, doctors, lawyers, and engineers. 

With the help of AI, they created portrait faces and communicated with the victims via video conferencing to establish an intimate relationship. Following the scripted conversation, they manipulated the minds of the victims with their emotionally seductive talks.

When they established an emotional attachment with the victims, they falsely claimed that they had sent gifts or parcels from other countries, which were being held back due to customs charges. 

After that, they demanded money to resolve the matter. According to the report, they targeted people through various platforms, including Messenger, Facebook, WeChat, TikTok, Line, and Zalo. Their victims were mostly elderly ladies from Thailand who were alone and emotionally vulnerable.

Suspects tied to a drug network, awaiting further investigations

The arrested suspects include Denis, aged 23 years (overstaying his visa for 726 days); Ejikeme, aged 24 years (overstaying his visa for 827 days); Ibekwe, aged 29 years (overstaying his visa for 1,166 days); Okorom, aged 26 years (overstaying his visa for 695 days); Nwosu, aged 30 years (overstaying his visa for 1,560 days); and Obielu, aged 35 years.

18 mobile phones, 3 laptops, and 3 bank passbooks were also seized by the police. The mobile phones, laptops, and bank passbooks contained logs of romantic chat scripts and AI-generated images.

The probe on the romantic scam case followed that of a cocaine drug syndicate in April 2026. In a previous arrest case, five persons, including one identified as Patrick, were arrested, and their property valued at 2.5 million baht was confiscated. 

Financial dealings revealed a connection between the cocaine syndicate and the present gang from Nigeria. Some of the seized phones in May contained live communications regarding illegal drug dealings.

According to Pol Maj Gen Theeradej Thammasuthee, the Deputy Commissioner of the Metropolitan Police Bureau, the arrested individuals admitted to committing the crimes of criminal association (secret society membership) and overstaying in Thailand without valid residence permits. 

Thai law enforcement officials have called for people to be watchful against any unwanted romantic approach that rapidly turns into financial demands. They will be charged with additional fraud when investigations are coordinated with other complainants about romantic scams.

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Dentists Are Using AI to Scare Patients Into Unnecessary Dental Work, According to an Explosive Investigation

Dentists Are Using AI to Scare Patients Into Unnecessary Dental Work, According to an Explosive Investigation

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Is your dentist upselling you on something? Does your old filling really need to be replaced, and is that tooth decay really bad enough to warrant new work?

Such suspicions have probably crossed your mind before as you laid there in tense anticipation of the noisy drill about to send stomach-churning vibrations through your teeth, and they’re not going to go away once you hear about how dentists across the country are embracing AI tools. 

In her new book “I Am Not a Robot: My Year Using AI to Do (Almost) Everything,” former Wall Street Journal columnist Joanna Stern recalls how a routine trip to the dentist’s office led her to unearthing the disturbing way that AI is being used to push unnecessary treatments.

“Similarly to how AI is being used in radiology for breasts or gallbladder, et cetera, it’s being used in dentistry. And honestly, it’s happening almost everywhere,” Stern said on the latest episode of The New York Time’s “Hard Fork” podcast discussing her book.

When Stern visited a dentist on her own time, she realized the office used a system called Pearl AI, which promises on its website to catch “37 percent more disease and deliver 24 percent more care to patients in need.”

The tool showed she had a lot of plaque build-up, and the dentist used its finding to give an assessment that was ominous for both her health and wallet: Stern would need periodontal treatment, which would take four different sessions and cost thousands of dollars. That it’d be covered by insurance wasn’t guaranteed.

To Stern, this was “weird.”

“I’ve never needed this before,” she said. “My teeth aren’t really bothering me.”

Wisely, she decided to get some outside opinions from multiple other dentists, all of whom disagreed with the AI’s analysis.

“‘We see the AI is saying that. But we’re looking, and it’s really not that bad. We think, with some better home care, it can be better,’” Stern said, paraphrasing the dentists. “And lo and behold, I never had the periodontal treatment.”

That led Stern to do some digging. In her reporting, employees who worked in dentists’ offices told her that their bosses were heavily pushing AI “because they can now see the readings” in an AI report. If they didn’t capitalize on the AI’s findings, their bosses would grill them. “‘Why didn’t you drill it? Why didn’t you sell the periodontal treatment?’” their bosses would say.

The upshot is grim.

“They are using AI to try to upsell you on dental procedures,” Stern said.

Tools like Pearl AI and Overjet, another popular staple in dentist offices, are just one facet of how AI is being used in medical practices. One of the areas that AI has shown the most promise in assisting doctors is in radiology, with a New York hospital CEO recently enthusing that the tech could help cut down on the number of highly trained radiologists. 

But as Stern opines, with radiology, a doctor using AI could potentially be detecting the early warning signs of something grave like breast cancer, justifying its use, even if the cancer isn’t guaranteed. The upside of having an AI identify something like a cavity before it manifests is decidedly less impressive and life-changing — and more likely to scare you into putting an unnecessary dent in your wallet.

More on medical AI: Top Medical Journal Publishes Searing Article Warning Against Medical AI

The post Dentists Are Using AI to Scare Patients Into Unnecessary Dental Work, According to an Explosive Investigation appeared first on Futurism.