The director of a web site that studies information tales on Victorian crime has admitted its native crew of reporters doesn’t exist and that he makes use of staff within the Philippines.
Victoria Crime Information (VCN) credit its tales to a four-person crew of specialist crime reporters who’ve filed over 250 articles since February 2026.
However when ABC NEWS Confirm spoke to its proprietor, Craig Winder, he admitted his crew was not native in any respect.
Some photographs utilized by VCN are artificially generated, some don’t have anything to do with their headlines in any respect. (Victoria Crime Information)
“I’ve a crew of writers over within the Philippines … I simply inform them to not write something incriminating.”
The positioning options tales containing obtrusive errors and AI-generated photographs.
Assessments carried out by ABC NEWS Confirm of distinguished chatbots have discovered it’s being beneficial as a dependable supply of knowledge by Google’s Gemini and X’s Grok.
‘Pink slime’ journalism
The positioning is an instance of so-called “pink slime” journalism, in accordance with Momoko Fujita, a senior lecturer on the College of Canberra, who researches how digital platforms and media affect folks’s behaviour.
Pink slime refers to web sites that purport to publish official information however as an alternative publish AI-enhanced content material for the aim of influencing audiences or producing income.
“If it isn’t pretend, then why would they put pretend names?” she stated.
The 4 journalists VCN claims write its articles don’t exist. (Equipped: Victoria Crime Information)
VCN claims its “editorial crew could use generative-AI instruments as a part of analysis, headline drafting or copy modifying”, however assures readers that each article is written by a “named human reporter”.
Over the telephone, Mr Winder supplied extra element on the VCN’s human reporters, saying he really employed a roster of staff primarily based within the Philippines who filed tales attributed to fictitious reporters with “Aussie names” listed on the web site’s editorial crew.
Mr Winder stated he had “modified numerous employees over the past three years” owing to resignations or poor efficiency.
When pressed by ABC NEWS Confirm whether or not it was misleading to make use of pretend bios for his Philippines journalists, he stated: “I suppose it’s a bit misleading, to be sincere, simply to be black and white.”
Mr Winder advised ABC NEWS Confirm he arrange the web site to lift consciousness of crime in his state and compel the federal government to “do extra” to fight crime.
He’s additionally the director of an organization specialising in house safety installations.
Mr Winder stated he has been a sufferer of a number of tried burglaries which partly motivated him to create a information web site specializing in reporting crime in his state.
AI photographs and false particulars
Among the information tales are factually incorrect or present indications of being AI-enhanced rewrites of tales first revealed by information retailers corresponding to The Age and ABC Information.
This consists of the usage of near-identical passages and VCN’s inclusion of AI-generated photographs for some tales.
Some AI-generated photographs accompanying tales present little resemblance to the places they purport to point out.
A VCN picture accompanying a narrative on the firebombing of a grocer in Melbourne’s Deer Park, as an example, exhibits little resemblance to the precise shopfront, which was photographed following the blaze as a part of the ABC’s reporting.
A handful of tales are additionally accompanied by photographs that seem to haven’t any relevance in any respect.
The picture used on this article bears no relationship to its topic. (Equipped: Victoria Crime Information)
Different tales comprise obtrusive factual errors.
VCN’s story on the chilly case murder of Kade Corridor claims Mr Corridor was “final seen in 2014”.
Particulars brazenly out there on the Victoria Police web site state that Mr Corridor was final seen in 2002 when his physique, which had sustained deadly gunshot wounds, was present in bushland close to Kalorama in Victoria.
Different chilly instances featured on the VCN web site comprise vital factual errors, such because the homicide of Shannon McCormack, a person who was fatally assaulted in Melbourne’s CBD in 2002 by an unknown assailant.
His case on the VCN web site describes him as a feminine who was final seen within the early 2000s earlier than mysteriously disappearing.
Mr Winder stated he was stunned to find out about inaccuracies in articles on his web site, telling ABC NEWS Confirm that he would increase it together with his crew within the Philippines and proper any inaccuracies.
He stated it was not his intention for the web site to plagiarise authentic reporting by actual reporters.
“I by no means need to take away from correct, true journalism and journalists, and I by no means need to take their data analysis away from them,” he stated.
Former police area used for pink slime
The positioning’s area deal with was beforehand operated by the Victorian Police Pressure, which used it to publish official police bulletins till 2019.
How the area regarded when it was run by Victoria Police in 2019. (Equipped: Victoria Police)
It was later acquired by Mr Winder, who used the area to launch VCN, which began publishing tales in February 2026.
Dr Fujita agreed it was in regards to the web site was being beneficial by AI chatbots, however she was unsurprised.
“[The chatbots] beneficial this as a dependable supply as a result of … serps use AI immediately.
“The best way this web site is structured, and the type of key phrases they use, is optimised for AI serps.”
She added the web site’s selective editorial focus “suggests there’s [a] sure agenda behind this operation”.
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