Police say that the 'AI homeless scam' has caused dozens of emergency reports.
The Dutch police issued a warning to young people after videos surfaced on TikTok showing "begging thieves" in homes, which later turned out to be fake and created by artificial intelligence. This trend, which spread quickly online, depicts realistic scenes of a bearded man in tattered clothes appearing to hide inside homes, while in reality, it is a digitally generated image.
Authorities said that frightened parents called emergency services after receiving these clips from their children, believing that a real thief had broken into their homes. In several cases, police arrived at the reported locations to find no break-in had occurred. In at least two cases, helicopters were dispatched to search for the imaginary suspect after parents reported stolen property.
These incidents prompted the Dutch police to respond through the same platform where the trend started. In a clip posted by an officer known as politie Frans, he appears trying to catch a bearded man in shabby clothes, only for the latter to completely stop, revealing that he is just a still image. The officer then turns to the camera saying, "Pranks are fun, but make sure they don't get out of control, agreed?"
The police confirmed that humor and creativity on the internet are welcome, but wasting emergency resources has serious consequences. They explained that dealing with false reports hinders the response to real cases and may delay assistance to those who truly need it.
Authorities urged parents to talk to their children about the responsible use of social media and to warn them about the real-life consequences of digital pranks, especially those that use artificial intelligence techniques to create images or videos that look frighteningly real.