Wichita man targeted in AI-generated nude photo extortion scam
“It’s got my face, right? But that’s not my body... That could ruin my career.”
WICHITA, Kan. (KWCH) - A new online scam powered by AI has arrived in Wichita.
Criminals use AI to generate nude photos of people, and then threaten to send them to friends and family unless you send them money.
Neal Zoglmann, a Wichita resident, received a message from an unknown number.
“I open up this text message and it’s these photos that they’re me, or they look like they’re me, and they’re in my house, in my bathroom, in my kitchen, in my living room, but there are no clothes on me,” Zoglmann said.
The message also included a threat.
“There are screenshots of my Facebook profile, screenshots of my friend list, screenshots of my family, and like my sister’s Facebook profile was the first one,” Zoglmann said. “They’re like, ‘we will send it to all of these people if you don’t pay us so much money.’”
The photos were fake - AI generated, created solely for this crime.
“Things are off. There’s watermarks, and they’re not... They’re AI photos. It’s got my face, right? But that’s not my body. But it’s in my bathroom,” Zoglmann said.
Even though Zoglmann knew the photos were fake, he also knew they could be just as damaging as anything real.
“It’s scary to think if this made its way to my boss, or if this made its way to my family, like how that could ruin my relationships with the people around me. How that could ruin my career. How that could affect my employment,” Zoglmann said.
Related Content:
- AI is supercharging scams and making fake calls sound real
- AI scammers target sports fans with celebrity deepfakes
- Musk’s chatbot Grok faces backlash over AI images of women and children
The Wichita Police Department said they’ve never seen a situation like this before.
“We haven’t seen anything in our department. No cases have come through our investigators,” said Andrew Ford with WPD.
Police say the best way to protect yourself is to be aware on social media and to lock down your accounts from bad actors.
“You just have to be aware. Majority of folks have social media accounts, people post pictures of themselves with their family. People can take that screenshot of that photo, or crop your head out and put it on another type of picture,” Ford said. “So you already have to be mindful that once you put your picture on social media that anyone can take that picture and use it.”
Zoglmann has filed a police report regarding the incident. He said he hasn’t received any more messages after blocking the numbers.
If you find yourself in a similar situation, police urge you to call 911 and file a report of your own.
Related Content:
Copyright 2026 KWCH. All rights reserved. To report a correction or typo, please email news@kwch.com
