News 5 February 2024
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Man at work tricked by deepfake scam into paying out $25 million of company funds

5 February 2024
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A finance worker at a multinational was duped by a deepfake scam into paying out $25 million.

Using deep fake technology which is when someone uses technology to digitally manipulate themselves to look like another person, the scammer lured the finance worker into a conference call where the request for the money was made.

The conference call which took place in Hong Kong included colleagues that the finance employee recognised including the company’s chief financial officer but all of the colleagues were in fact deepfake recreations of staff.

Acting Senior Superintendent Baron Chan involved in the case said as reported by RTHK.HK, “(The fraudster) invited the informant to a video conference that would have had many participants. Because the people in the video conference looked like the real people, the informant made 15 transactions as instructed to five local bank accounts, which came to a total of HK$200 million.

“I believe the fraudster downloaded videos in advance and then used artificial intelligence to add fake voices to use in the video conference.  Scammers found publicly available video and audio of the impersonation targets via YouTube, then used deepfake technology to emulate their voices… to lure the victim to follow their instructions.”

Chan added, “We want to alert the public to these new deception tactics. In the past, we would assume these scams would only involve two people in one-on-one situations, but we can see from this case that fraudsters are able to use AI technology in online meetings, so people must be vigilant even in meetings with lots of participants.”