Arabic version: موقع جرائم في فيكتوريا استخدم كتّاباً مقيمين في الفلبين

According to ABC News, the owner of Victoria Crime News has acknowledged that the website’s claimed local reporting team does not exist and that workers in the Philippines produce its stories. The site, which focuses on crime in Victoria, credits more than 250 articles published since February 2026 to four specialist crime reporters.

Owner Craig Winder told ABC NEWS Verify that he employed a roster of Philippines-based workers whose articles were attributed to fictitious reporters with “Aussie names” in the site’s editorial team. He said he set up the website to raise awareness of crime in Victoria and encourage the government to do more to combat it. Winder is also director of a home-security installation company and said attempted burglaries had partly motivated him.

Victoria Crime News says generative AI may be used for research, headline drafting or copy editing, while assuring readers that each article is written by a named human reporter. ABC NEWS Verify found some stories contained factual errors, near-identical passages to reporting by outlets including ABC News and The Age, and AI-generated or unrelated images. Winder said he would raise inaccuracies with his Philippines-based team and correct them.

Momoko Fujita, a University of Canberra senior lecturer who researches digital platforms and media influence, described the model as “pink slime” journalism: sites presenting themselves as legitimate news while using AI-enhanced content to influence audiences or generate revenue. ABC NEWS Verify also found Google’s Gemini and X’s Grok recommended the site as a reliable source. The domain was previously used by Victoria Police for official announcements until 2019 before Winder acquired it and launched the current site.