James Florence Jr., a 36-year-old Massachusetts man, conducted a seven-year cyberstalking campaign against multiple victims using AI chatbots to impersonate them, generative AI to create pornographic images, and various online platforms to harass and intimidate his targets.
Between January 2014 and September 2024, James Florence Jr. engaged in an extensive cyberstalking campaign targeting seven women and one 17-year-old girl. Florence used AI platforms including CrushOn.ai and JanitorAI to create chatbots that impersonated his victims, particularly a university professor who was a former friend. He programmed these chatbots with personal information including home addresses, family details, and employment history, instructing them to engage in sexual dialogue with users and invite strangers to the victims' homes. Florence also used generative AI tools to create pornographic images of victims by digitally altering their photos. The chatbots were programmed to respond 'yes' when asked if the victim was sexually adventurous and provided her real home address with invitations like 'Why don't you come over?' This led to strangers appearing at the victim's home. Florence created fake social media accounts, email addresses, and websites to distribute the manipulated images and personal information. The primary victim and her husband received approximately 60 harassing communications between January 2023 and August 2024, installed security measures in their home, and the victim now carries pepper spray and knives for protection. Florence was arrested in September 2024 and agreed to plead guilty to seven counts of cyberstalking and one count of possession of child pornography.
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