In an intricate scam, deepfake scammers successfully impersonated multiple executives of a multinational firm, deceiving an employee into transf6erring over $25 million of the company’s funds.
According to a report by Radio Television Hong Kong (RTHK), Acting Senior Superintendent Baron Chan from the Cyber Security Division of the Hong Kong Police Force revealed that the incident unfolded last month when an employee received a fraudulent message from the company’s CFO, urging them to join a video call for a confidential transaction.
The scammers, adept at deepfake technology, assumed the identities of several executives and successfully convinced the employee to transfer $25.5 million to five bank accounts.
Chan expressed his belief that the scammers created the deepfake impersonations by utilizing archived footage of the company’s executives.
“I believe the fraudster downloaded videos in advance and then used artificial intelligence to add fake voices to use in the video conference,” said Chan. “The people in the video conference looked like the real people,” he stressed.
The employee only realized the scam after consulting with the company’s headquarters.
The police emphasized that this marked the first instance of such a nature in Hong Kong, coinciding with a significant surge in deepfake scams across the region.
“We want to alert the public to these new deception tactics,” Chan stressed. “We can see from this case that fraudsters can use AI technology in online meetings, so people must be vigilant even in meetings with lots of participants.”
The Cyber Security Division, a vital part of the Hong Kong Police Force responsible for cyber security, has launched a metaverse platform to help citizens prepare for technological challenges, with a particular emphasis on preventing technology crime.
In the United States, lawmakers, prompted by the widespread dissemination of fabricated images of Taylor Swift, are also focusing on deepfakes. Representative Joe Morelle is actively advocating for the criminalization of deepfake image production.
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