Multiple gay men in New York City were drugged at bars, robbed using facial recognition technology on their phones while unconscious, with at least two men dying and others losing tens of thousands of dollars.
Between April and November 2022, a series of attacks targeted gay men at bars in Manhattan's Hell's Kitchen area. Julio Ramirez, 25, died in April after leaving the Ritz Bar and Lounge with three unknown men, and John Umberger, 33, died in May after leaving the Q bar. Both men had their bank accounts drained of tens of thousands of dollars after their deaths. The attackers used facial recognition technology on the victims' phones while they were unconscious from being drugged to access banking apps like Apple Pay and Zelle. At least five other men reported similar non-fatal attacks at various gay bars including the Eagle, Boiler Room, and 9th Avenue Saloon, with victims losing between $2,000 and $25,000. The drugs used, including GHB, are difficult to detect on standard toxicology tests. Police initially treated the deaths as drug overdoses rather than homicides, and victims reported difficulty convincing police they were crime victims rather than irresponsible partygoers.
Domain classification, causal taxonomy, severity scores, and national security assessments were LLM-classified and may contain errors.
Using AI systems to gain a personal advantage over others such as through cheating, fraud, scams, blackmail or targeted manipulation of beliefs or behavior. Examples include AI-facilitated plagiarism for research or education, impersonating a trusted or fake individual for illegitimate financial benefit, or creating humiliating or sexual imagery.
Human
Due to a decision or action made by humans
Intentional
Due to an expected outcome from pursuing a goal
Post-deployment
Occurring after the AI model has been trained and deployed