Tehran’s cyber police have issued a warning about increasingly sophisticated online fraud methods, including AI-generated deepfake audio, malicious software, and stolen login codes, posing a new threat to victims and financial security.
Tehran’s cyber police have warned that online fraud is becoming more sophisticated, with criminals increasingly using artificial intelligence, deepfake audio and video, stolen login codes and malicious software to deceive victims, according to remarks reported by Mehr News and republished by Zoomit. Daoud Moazzami Goudarzi, head of Tehran’s FATA cyber police, said the methods are no longer limited to opportunistic scams and now rely on technology that can quickly win a victim’s trust and inflict financial damage.
Moazzami Goudarzi said some fraudsters first obtain a person’s contacts or account details, then use AI-generated voices that sound like family members or close friends to demand urgent transfers of money. He urged people to treat sudden requests for cash, verification codes or bank details with suspicion, even when the caller appears familiar, and to call back on a known number before taking any action.
He also highlighted scams that target shopping and instalment accounts. In these cases, victims may be tricked into sharing one-time codes sent to their phones after being promised prizes, discounts on medical services or other tempting offers. According to his warning, those codes can give attackers access to accounts used for buy-now-pay-later or credit purchases, leaving the owner responsible for debts and instalments they never intended to take on.
The police chief also cautioned against downloading unknown files or clicking unfamiliar links, saying malicious software can be installed once a file is opened on a phone or computer. Such malware can expose personal photos, contacts, messages and banking information. His comments come amid wider concern over Iranian-linked cyber activity: in June 2025, the NSA, CISA, the FBI and the Defence Department’s DC3 warned that Iranian cyber actors may target vulnerable US networks, while separate reports over the past year have described Iranian authorities themselves warning about deepfake misinformation, malware delivery through messaging apps and scams aimed at online users.
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