Incidents
Documented cases of fake citations
These pages collect public cases in which a citation named something that was not there, or a court sanctioned that conduct. Each page cites its sources. If a fact is not in those sources, it is not on the page.
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The 2025 MAHA report cited studies that do not exist
In May 2025 NOTUS found seven citations in the MAHA Commission report that do not appear to exist. Reuters confirmed two. What a reference checker can and cannot say about it.
Read the caseDeloitte Australia agreed to a partial refund after errors in a A$440,000 report
In 2025 Deloitte Australia agreed to partially refund a A$440,000 government report that contained incorrect references. The updated report disclosed Azure OpenAI GPT-4o. Amount of the refund is not stated here.
Read the caseICLR 2026 desk-rejected papers with confirmed hallucinated references
ICLR’s program chairs said many 2026 submissions cited documents that do not exist, and that confirmed cases were desk-rejected after human review. GPTZero’s separate count is labeled as theirs.
Read the caseLawyers were sanctioned in Mata v. Avianca for ChatGPT case citations
On 22 June 2023 Judge Castel sanctioned lawyers $5,000 for filing nonexistent judicial opinions generated by ChatGPT in Mata v. Avianca. RefCheck does not search case law.
Read the caseFrequently asked questions
Are these news articles?
No. Each page summarizes the public reporting or the court order it links, and says what a scholarly reference checker can and cannot do with that kind of document.
Why are some well-known claims missing?
A sentence is included only when one of the linked sources says it. Counts and causes that the sources do not establish are left out.
Did RefCheck produce these findings?
No. The pages describe other people's reporting and one court order. RefCheck was not run on those documents.
What does a check cost?
3 free reference checks without an account, plus 5 more free after you sign in. Then 1 AILatest credit per reference.