AI Romance Scam (Sha Zhu Pan): Using AI-generated personas and scripts to impersonate online romantic partners, building trust to induce investments or money transfers.

Who Gets Targeted

The target demographic primarily consists of single individuals aged 25 to 45 with strong emotional needs, a lack of investment experience, and limited awareness of generative AI technology. Female victims are often lured by personas disguised as high-net-worth Hong Kong financial professionals or overseas elites, while male victims are easily swayed by fake personas of independent, successful female entrepreneurs or gentle confidantes. Psychological vulnerabilities center around intense loneliness, a desire for emotional resonance, illusions of «stable, high returns,» and a lack of ability to recognize social engineering scripts. Some victims place special trust in strangers due to real-life stress or a lack of understanding from family members.

骗局怎么运作

• Step 1: «Disguising the Persona»: Scam syndicates register accounts on social platforms or dating apps, pairing AI-generated elite imagery with standardized template personas such as «Hong Kong background,» «overseas wealthy merchant,» or «independent successful professional,» interspersed with AI-generated photos and short clips to lower the other party's guard and trick the victim into believing they have met a real, affluent partner.
• Step 2: «Fattening and Nurturing»: Relying on AI-assisted emotional script templates, they engage in weeks of daily casual chatting, maintaining morning and evening greeting rituals to progressively build an emotional connection; occasionally «casually» mentioning high-return internal channels and embellishing a fake lifestyle standard to make victims proactively develop curiosity and enter the preset orbit of trust and dependence.
• Step 3: «Investment Induction»: Using forged profit screenshots or platform account balances to upgrade credibility, guiding victims to click exclusive links to download apps and deposit funds into platforms dealing in foreign exchange, gambling, or cryptocurrencies; emphasizing «stable profits that can be withdrawn» and «secure internal channels» to make victims mistakenly believe in their authenticity, ignoring abnormalities in platform qualifications and fund flows.
• Step 4: «Small-Scale Baiting»: Initially allowing small withdrawals to create a trust that «money can be retrieved»; subsequently pressing for increased investments by fabricating «limited-time high-yield opportunities» or «internal VIP channels,» exerting pressure to manufacture anxiety, reducing the victim's space for verification, and pushing them under emotional and time pressure to make money transfer decisions exceeding their own capacity.
• Step 5: «Scam Control and Harvesting»: After victims transfer large sums of funds, the platform blocks withdrawals under excuses such as «account abnormalities» or «the need to pay security deposits and review fees»; or directly shuts down the app, with operators blocking contact and disappearing. The victims' losses are difficult to recover, and some syndicates even impersonate customer service or rights-protection agencies to carry out secondary scams, further squeezing remaining funds.

红旗信号（看到这些快跑）

• 🚩 The other party claims to have «guaranteed profits with no risk» or «internal investment channels,» repeatedly emphasizing stable returns higher than market levels.
• 🚩 Excessive enthusiasm in a short period, frequently expressing emotional phrases like «want to see you» or «living together in the future» without any reasonable plan for a real-life meeting.
• 🚩 The other party is unable to conduct a real video call, or the video footage is blurry, lips do not match audio, expressions are stiff, and blinking frequency is abnormal.
• 🚩 Guiding the installation of investment apps through unofficial app stores or only via SMS links, featuring a crude interface and no regulatory filing information.
• 🚩 The investment platform requires deposits to personal accounts or frequently demands additional margin payments, audit fees, or unfreezing funds.
• 🚩 The other party's profile picture and social media photos yield multiple sources via reverse image search, or the clarity is suspiciously high, suggesting AI generation.

真实案例

• According to HK01 reports in 2024, a woman in Shenzhen was defrauded of huge sums of money by a scam syndicate disguised with a Hong Kong financial background through online dating, leading to bankruptcy. The case involved over 200 victims, and the syndicate operated with unified scripts and personas to manage victims over the long term.
• According to Sina News reports, Shanghai police cracked a 50-member online romance scam syndicate case. The syndicate used structured scripts and division of labor, routinely contacting victims under the guise of romance on social platforms and dating apps to induce deposits into fake investment platforms or direct transfers.
• In August 2026, CCTV exposed a local dating app hiding scams involving approximately 70 million yuan. The app guided male users to recharge virtual gifts and participate in «split investments» through fake female accounts and scripts, which was actually a Ponzi-style pool of funds.
• According to United Daily News reports, prosecutors and police cracked an AI voice-cloning romance scam case, arresting 6 public relations hostesses. Suspects used AI voice-changing technology and script templates on dating platforms to play female roles, maintaining multiple victims long-term and defrauding them of transfers.

Official Stance

• In August 2026, CCTV exposed local dating app scams involving approximately 70 million yuan, warning the public to be vigilant against «gentle traps» and promises of «high returns» on dating platforms.
• Tencent Cloud Developer Community published «Research on Identification Mechanisms and Defense Technologies for Emotional Phishing Scams in the Context of Generative AI,» pointing out that AI-generated scripts and synthetic imagery significantly enhance scam credibility, requiring platform-side prominent labeling and user-side anti-fraud education to advance simultaneously.
• Shanghai police and anti-fraud centers in various regions successively reported online romance investment scams, urging single groups not to blindly trust scripts about «internal investment channels,» verify platform qualifications before depositing, and retain evidence.
• Procuratorial organs issued public warnings regarding the four-step trap of «Sha Zhu Pan,» emphasizing that upon encountering characteristics such as refusing video calls, guiding downloads of unfamiliar apps, and promising stable high yields, contact should be terminated immediately and reported to the police.

How to Protect Yourself

• ✅ Maintain vigilance against any «risk-free guaranteed profits» or «internal investment channels,» do not blindly trust financial advice from online romantic interests, and discuss with family members or professionals before depositing funds.
• ✅ Prioritize downloading investment apps through official app stores, and be wary of platforms that require installation via SMS links or can only be accessed through browsers; verify whether platforms hold ICP filings and financial business qualifications.
• ✅ Attempt video calls to verify the other party's identity, pay attention to whether the footage shows traces of AI synthesis, and request the other party to perform designated actions such as blocking half their face or turning their head to observe latency and distortion.
• ✅ Check institutional qualifications before depositing: check the corporate credit information publicity system for the entity's baseline business records, verify business scope and shareholding structure, and check the CSRC official website for corresponding financial business licenses. Pay special attention to discrepancies between personal collection accounts, corporate account names, and app operators, and additionally check whether the institution has records of administrative penalties or abnormal business operations.
• ✅ Immediately stop transfers upon encountering scripts claiming «account abnormalities» or «need to pay security deposits,» retain chat history, transfer receipts, and app screenshots, and call the 96110 anti-fraud hotline or report to public security organs.