‘AI Image’ Reported as Someone’s “Own Photo”… Police: “Identical Photo,” ‘Search, Seizure and Inspection Warrant’ Executed in the U.S. via International Cooperation

I was using an image of a person made with ChatGPT as my Threads profile picture. Then that image was reported.

The investigator said the profile image of my Threads sub-account had been reported for ‘photo theft.’ When I said it was an image I had made with AI, the answer I got was “The person in that photo that you say you made, the one you can see there, filed the report.” (만들었다고 거기 보이시는 그 사진에 있으신 분이 신고하셨어요.)

I do not know who the reporter is. According to the investigator, the reporter came to the police station in person, showed their face, account and posts, and filed the report, and the investigator looked at that face and said the person in the photo was indeed them. The investigator added, “Right now that person's photo is being stolen all over the place, so it's more than a little” (그분은 지금 여기저기에 그 사진이 도용당해 가지고 여간) “vexing for them.” (머리를 썩는 게 아니어서요.) If the investigator's account is right, the reporter may be a victim whose photos have been stolen in many places.

On the same call, when I asked back, “Really? But it's made by AI, and you're saying that's a real person?” (그래요? 근데 AI로 만든 건데 그게 지금 실제 인물이라고요?), the investigator's answer was short: “Yes, it's a real person.” (네 실제 인물이세요.)

On October 2, I called again myself. The investigator said, “But you don't have any status yet, I'm telling you.” (근데 무슨 신분이 아직 있으신 게 아니라고요.) When I asked whether, just because a report had been filed, they could request my account's user information from Meta and receive it, the investigator said, “Yes, we received it.” (네 받았는데요.) When I asked again how they had requested it, the answer was “A search, seizure and inspection warrant.” (압수수색 검증영장이요.) and, right after that, “That's how it was executed in the United States. Through international cooperation.” (그렇게 해서 미국에다가 집행한 거예요. 국제 공조해서.) I could not confirm when the warrant was executed.

I also asked whether the reporter had submitted a photo, and whether that photo was identical to my profile image. The investigator answered, “Yes, since that's been confirmed, a warrant comes out. It doesn't come out just like that.” (네 그게 확인이 되니까는 영장이 나오죠. 그냥은 안 나와요.) A little later, when I asked again whether the two images were identical, the investigator first said “I can't tell whether it was made and brought in, or ChatGPT took it from somewhere…” (만들어 온 건지 챗gpt가 따온 건지는 알 수가…), and the investigator's words were cut off there because I kept talking. Then the investigator said, “Yes, identical, I said. I told you the same thing back then too, didn't I.” (예 동일하다고요. 그때도 똑같이 말씀드렸잖아요.)

I made this image myself on July 10, in the free version of ChatGPT. I did not put in a single reference photo. This is all I typed:

I felt the first result looked AI-made, so I asked again, and I used the second result as the profile picture of a test Threads sub-account. The first contact came 82 days later.

I uploaded the reported image 2 to OpenAI's generated-content verification page. It showed ‘Generated with OpenAI tools,’ and the creation time was shown as July 10, 2026. However, the verification tool does not tell you who made it or why. Whether a reference photo was used is shown by the conversation record that made it.

If the investigator's account is right, this case went from the report being filed to a warrant, international cooperation and the securing of my account's user information. Where in this procedure was the step of checking whether it was an image made by AI?

On October 4, to avoid secondary harm to the person who filed the report, I set the sub-account to private and took down the profile image.

The final investigation result has not been confirmed. Given that the investigator said the images were ‘identical,’ there are four cases to consider, and at this point I cannot tell which one it is. I also do not yet know where my information, which the investigator said was handed over via a warrant and international cooperation, is stored or when it is deleted. The outcome of the investigation is not the end of this record.

If you have been through something similar, I would like to hear your story.

The “Own Photo” and “Identical Photo” in the title are shortened summaries of what was said on the calls. The other words inside “ ” are my translations of what was said on the call recordings and of the prompts I typed into the AI; the original Korean follows each quote.

When you quote this record, please link the source (jiwon24.kr) together with this address. https://www.jiwon24.kr/en/ai-case/free-chatgpt-image-reported-as-real-person/