AI Virtual Human Matchmaking Scam: Impersonating Crush Objects for Chat Interactions to Harvest High Matchmaking Service Fees

Who Gets Targeted

Victims are primarily single men and women anxious about romance and marriage, including older youth, divorced individuals, busy urban white-collar workers, and some elderly people with a strong sense of loneliness. Eager for genuine emotion and highly trusting of platforms, they are easily attracted by virtual personas with 'high education, high income, and great looks.' Their psychological vulnerabilities lie in dating anxiety, the fear of missing out, and the misconception that paying money will grant access to premium resources. When AI virtual humans proactively offer care and warmth, victims mistakenly believe they have met their true love, continuously spending money to unlock contact information, upgrade memberships, and purchase matchmaking services until their savings are exhausted.

骗局怎么运作

• Step 1: Black and grey industry syndicates register or rent matchmaking platforms, batch-generating AI virtual human photos and profiles. Using open-source AI painting tools, they create 'wealthy, attractive, and successful' personas. Photos are processed through face generators, featuring flawless facial features that cannot be found on any real social media account via reverse image search. They batch-load these fake members into the platform database, disguising them as premium single users.
• Step 2: Once a user registers, the AI virtual human initiates matching and chatting. The system uses preset chat scripts to automatically reply based on user profiles and conversation keywords. The tone is gentle and caring, with phrases like 'Finally waited for you' and 'You are a person with a story,' while frequently sharing 'lifestyle details' to rapidly build intimacy within 1 to 2 days, creating the illusion of a 'soulmate.'
• Step 3: When the user attempts to exchange real contact information or propose an in-person meeting, a paywall pops up on the platform. It requires paying 'membership fees,' 'contact unlocking fees,' or purchasing 'one-on-one senior matchmaking services,' with amounts ranging from hundreds to tens of thousands of yuan. The rhetoric emphasizes 'This is to filter out sincere users' and 'Safety cannot be guaranteed without payment,' leveraging the user's fear of missing out to prompt payment.
• Step 4: After payment, the AI virtual human continues to maintain interaction and even arranges 'virtual date' scenarios. The chat features AI-generated landscape, dinner, and work photos with excuses like 'busy' or 'on a business trip,' refusing video calls or offline meetings under various pretexts. If the user insists repeatedly, the system switches to 'matchmaker' human customer service for pacification, claiming the other party is 'shy' or 'testing you,' continuing to induce purchases of higher-priced packages.
• Step 5: When the user realizes they have been scammed and complains, the platform refuses refunds on the grounds that 'emotional companionship services have already been provided,' and even blocks the user and deletes their account. The entire team then changes the app name and domain name, continuing the scam using the same AI virtual human library, forming a replicable black and grey industry chain.

红旗信号（看到这些快跑）

• 🚩 The member photos displayed on the platform are too perfect to be real. Enlarging them reveals AI-generated traces on fingers, earlobes, and background text, and Baidu or Google image searches yield no results.
• 🚩 Chat reply speed is extremely fast, almost instantaneous, and they never answer voice or video calls, only sending text and images under the excuse of 'company confidentiality' or 'in a meeting.'
• 🚩 They express strong affection just two or three days after meeting, claiming 'You are the one I've been looking for,' while urging users to upgrade memberships or purchase matchmaking services to create a sense of urgency.
• 🚩 The platform's payment QR codes point to personal accounts or third-party payments rather than corporate accounts, and fail to provide regular invoices or clear service contracts.
• 🚩 When users request offline meetings, the other party always makes excuses like business trips, illness, or temporary overtime, but online interactions and payment inducements never stop.
• 🚩 Platform complaint channels are practically non-existent, refund terms are ambiguous, and customer service only promises that 'recharging and upgrading will unlock real contact information,' forming a chain of recurring charges.

真实案例

• In January 2026, a woman surnamed Jia in Shanghai submitted a 238-page PPT to the media, real-name exposing a matchmaking platform for using AI virtual humans to impersonate premium male members, tricking her into paying 220,000 yuan in matchmaking service fees. According to her statistics, the platform involved hundreds of victims, with individual losses ranging from thousands to hundreds of thousands of yuan. (Source: [https://news.qq.com/rain/a/20260121A05KTG00](https://news.qq.com/rain/a/20260121A05KTG00))
• In February 2026, CNR reported that a fake matchmaking app attracted over 6 million user registrations in two years. The platform used chat-bot automation in the backend, inducing payments under the name of 'unlocking crush objects.' Victims were distributed nationwide with huge involved amounts, and public security authorities have filed cases for investigation.
• In March 2026, Ms. Wang from Shanghai complained that she spent 15,000 yuan to purchase matchmaking services on a matchmaking app, only for her crush male guest to suddenly 'disappear.' She later discovered that the object she chatted and recharged with on the app was a preset scripted bot, and the so-called 'real members' were all AI-generated, with no recourse for a refund. (Source: [https://finance.sina.cn/2026-03-15/detail-inhqzzfv9632497.d.html?node_id=76675&vt=4](https://finance.sina.cn/2026-03-15/detail-inhqzzfv9632497.d.html?node_id=76675&vt=4))
• In early 2025, the Nanjing Intermediate People's Court announced a typical case of a fake matchmaking app. The criminal syndicate operated the Yueliao App, using local dating as bait, and induced recharges through information bombardment and ambiguous phrasing, defrauding a total of over 230 million yuan in property. (Source: [https://news.cnr.cn/native/gd/20260202/t20260202_527513387.shtml](https://news.cnr.cn/native/gd/20260202/t20260202_527513387.shtml))
• In 2024, Dezhou Public Security in Shandong cracked down on a fake dating and matchmaking fraud case. A criminal syndicate used the same routine in a chat and dating software called Xiaoqingsi to induce users to spend money on virtual gifts. The nationwide involved personnel—including female chatters, promoters, and managers—exceeded 5,000. Over two years, it attracted 6.36 million male user registrations, with an involved amount of about 360 million yuan. (Source: [https://news.cnr.cn/native/gd/20260202/t20260202_527513387.shtml](https://news.cnr.cn/native/gd/20260202/t20260202_527513387.shtml))

Official Stance

• On April 13, 2026, Xinhua Viewpoint published 'Full of "Affection" on the Lips, Pure Business in the Heart—Beware of "AI Overlord" Scams Targeting the Elderly,' warning of new methods of AI digital human romance fraud and calling on elderly people and their children to raise their awareness of prevention.
• In February 2026, CNR published 'A Thousand-Mile "Marriage Tie" Connected by Network Cables, Only to Encounter an Upgraded Version of Telecom Fraud—How Did Fake Matchmaking Apps Attract Over 6 Million Registrations in Two Years?', exposing the operational model of fake matchmaking apps using bot chats to induce payment.
• On February 25, 2026, the Jining People's Procuratorate released a case broadcast: 'Using AI-generated beauty videos for traffic attraction, 15 victims fell deep into the "sweet trap" and were defrauded!', reporting typical cases of romance fraud using AI-generated fake portraits.

How to Protect Yourself

• ✅ Perform reverse image searches on member photos displayed on the platform, and use AI detection tools to identify facial synthesis traces; any account whose real social media profile cannot be found through searching should be treated as high risk.
• ✅ Resolutely reject any requests for fees before meeting in person, including 'membership upgrades,' 'unlocking contact information,' and 'matchmaking service fees'; remember: genuine romance and dating do not use fees to prove sincerity.
• ✅ Before paying, check the platform's business license, ICP filing, and complaint records, and search the entire web for '[Platform Name] + scam'; meanwhile, require a clear contract specifying service content and refund conditions, and retain all transfer receipts and chat screenshots.
• ✅ Once abnormalities are found, immediately stop all payments, report to the 12315 platform, and bring evidence to the public security cybersecurity department to file a report; at the same time, join victim groups to jointly protect rights and increase the probability of criminal case filing.