An Old Tappan man has been arrested in Bergen County, New Jersey, after prosecutors say he used artificial intelligence to create fake nude images of two women and posted them on social media under the women's real names. Bergen County Prosecutor Mark Musella announced the arrest of Daniel G. Pfeiffer, 37, of Old Tappan, following a months-long investigation led by the Bergen County Prosecutor's Office Cyber Crimes Unit and the Harrington Park Police Department.
Source: Bergen County Prosecutor's Office via The Ridgewood Blog
According to the prosecutor's office, the social media accounts at the centre of the case paired real photographs and the real names of two adult victims with computer-generated, AI-made nude images. In other words, the pictures of the women were real and identified them — but the nude images were fabricated, created with AI technology to look like them. The two women have not been named by authorities, and Awaaz Punjab is not naming them.
How the investigation unfolded
The case began in May 2026, when the Harrington Park Police Department flagged the concerning social media posts to the prosecutor's Cyber Crimes Unit. Detectives then ran what the prosecutor's office described as an intensive digital-footprint investigation, working backwards from the accounts to identify the person operating them. Prosecutors say that work led them to Pfeiffer.
On Thursday, October 22, 2026, officers executed a search warrant at Pfeiffer's Old Tappan residence, which the prosecutor's office said confirmed his involvement in generating and publishing the images. Pfeiffer was taken into custody and remanded to the Bergen County Jail, where he is being held pending a first appearance in Bergen County Superior Court in Hackensack.
Source: NJ.com reporting via 95.9 The RAT (WRAT)
The charges, count by count
Pfeiffer faces two counts each of five offences: third-degree creation of deceptive visual media (N.J.S.A. 2C:21-17.8b(6)); third-degree distribution of deceptive visual media (N.J.S.A. 2C:21-17.8c); third-degree invasion of privacy (N.J.S.A. 2C:14-9c); fourth-degree cyber-harassment (N.J.S.A. 2C:33-4.1a); and harassment (N.J.S.A. 2C:33-4a). The deceptive-visual-media counts are brought under New Jersey's statute aimed at exactly this kind of fabricated imagery — using the law's creation and distribution provisions, two counts for each of the two victims.
Prosecutor Musella emphasized that the charges are accusations and that Pfeiffer is presumed innocent unless and until he is proven guilty beyond a reasonable doubt. No court has made any finding in this case yet.
A history of similar cases, according to earlier reporting
NJ.com's reporting, carried by several New Jersey outlets on October 29, says this is not Pfeiffer's first case of this kind. He was previously charged with posting sexually explicit images online in 2015 and spent 364 days in the Bergen County Jail on that charge. In 2019, authorities said, he set up a fake dating account under a woman's name, conduct that was said to violate his probation and a plea agreement restricting his internet use to work. He was later incarcerated for more than two years after posting explicit images of the same woman, in violation of a permanent restraining order against stalking. According to the Daily Voice, cited in the same reporting, authorities have not said whether the two women in the new case were involved in any of the earlier cases.
Musella thanked the agencies that worked on the investigation: the Harrington Park Police Department, the Old Tappan Police Department and the New York City Police Department, with special recognition for the Bergen County Cyber Crimes Task Force, which brings together the Bergen County Sheriff's Office and the Hasbrouck Heights, Norwood and Waldwick police departments.
Why this case reaches far beyond one county
The case lands at a moment when AI image tools can fabricate a convincing fake of a real person in minutes, and prosecutors across the United States are testing older privacy and harassment laws — and newer deceptive-media statutes like New Jersey's — against that technology. For the large Punjabi and South Asian community in New Jersey, from Edison and Jersey City to Bergen County's suburbs, the case is a practical warning as much as a crime story: a person's ordinary public photos and name can be enough raw material for a fabricated image, and the first call, investigators say, should be to local police and the prosecutor's cyber-crimes unit, which in this case built its file from a single police tip in May.
What happens next
Pfeiffer remains in the Bergen County Jail awaiting his first appearance in Bergen County Superior Court in Hackensack, where the charges will be formally presented and the court will address his detention and the conditions of the case going forward. Prosecutors have not announced any additional victims or charges, and the investigation's public record so far covers the two victims identified in the October announcement. Awaaz Punjab will update this story if the court sets further dates or if prosecutors file additional counts.