Laura AI image incident — Nov 2026

A woman named Laura was targeted by a scammer posing as a Utah County Sheriff's Department officer who threatened her with an arrest warrant. After identifying the call as a fraud, she responded by sending the scammer an AI-generated image depicting her own arrest.

What happened

The scammer contacted Laura claiming she had missed jury duty for a high-profile case, which supposedly made her eligible for an arrest warrant. Laura realized the caller was lying because she had completed jury duty the previous year and was not due for another summons for several years. Despite her skepticism, the caller persisted, threatening to detain her and sending a fraudulent arrest warrant document purportedly from the United States District Court.

During the interaction, Laura admitted to making mistakes, including confirming her name and home address to the caller. However, she utilized a call screening feature on her phone, which required the unknown caller to state their purpose before she answered. This provided her with time to prepare for the conversation. In an attempt to disrupt the scammer, Laura generated two AI images: one showing her being arrested while posing for the camera and another depicting a mugshot of her holding a board with her details. She sent these images to the scammer, later acknowledging that she should not have engaged with the individual or shared the photos.