Aug 18, 2026Confirmed
Comedy writer Bruce Vilanch sends money in suspected AI-assisted scam posing as NPR host Terry Gross
AI loose in the worldImpersonationDERIVED
Approved by person, Oct 11, 2026. How entries are approved
Comedy writer Bruce Vilanch reportedly received personalized messages posing as Terry Gross, host of NPR's Fresh Air, and sent money after being asked to support NPR. He learned it was fraud when Gross did not appear for the interview. Reporting called the scheme likely AI-assisted; no AI system was named.
What this means for youScammers may use AI to write convincing, personal messages that appear to come from well-known people. If an invitation asks for money, confirm it through the person's or organization's official channels before paying.
Sources
- AI Incident Databasehttps://incidentdatabase.ai/cite/1663
Data from the AI Incident Database (incidentdatabase.ai), licensed CC BY-SA 4.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/). McGregor, S. (2021) Preventing Repeated Real World AI Failures by Cataloging Incidents: The AI Incident Database. IAAI-21.
Source data license: CC BY-SA 4.0 (database). Report contents keep their own rights; reports.text, submissions, images and videos are excluded from the data license.
Covered by snapshot 45
da93f03b406f409940d0a6ef47b526607f82ebf457d98f69299b88aceede576a
This entry is record number 2062. It has not been edited since it was approved; the hash above would not match if it had. How to verify