An employee of a financial company in Hong Kong was scammed into transferring 200 million Hong Kong dollars (approximately 34.2 billion won) by being tricked into a video call with a fake boss created through deepfake (fake images or videos using generative AI).
According to Hong Kong’s South China Morning Post (SCMP) and the U.S. CNN on the 4th (local time), Hong Kong police authorities said in a briefing on the 2nd that AI deepfake fraud like this has been rampant recently and called for special caution.
According to the Hong Kong police, in the middle of last month, a financial employee working at the Hong Kong branch of a global financial company was asked to secretly trade a large amount of money in an email received from the Chief Financial Officer (CFO) of the UK headquarters.
The employee initially dismissed it as a phishing email disguised as the CFO. However, his doubts were lifted when he confirmed that several colleagues and the CFO were present in a group video conference to which he was invited. This is because their faces and voices were identical to real people the employees knew.
Following their instructions, the employee transferred a total of 200 million Hong Kong dollars 15 times to 5 Hong Kong commercial bank accounts. He later contacted the UK headquarters directly, found out that he had been scammed, and reported it to the police.
It was revealed that the group of fraudsters had deceived the victims by recreating the faces of all employees who attended the video conference, including the CFO, using deepfakes. A Hong Kong police official said, “Everyone this employee saw in the video conference attended by several people was fake.”
To block employees’ suspicions, the suspects diversified their crime methods, including using messengers, emails, and one-on-one video calls in addition to group video conferences. Deposit instructions were usually given just before the group video conference ended.
Hong Kong police announced that at least 20 cases of fraud using deepfakes were recently discovered. Another recently arrested fraudster received 90 bank loans and created 54 accounts using deepfake images created by stealing eight lost ID cards between July and September of last year.
In a related briefing, Inspector General Tyler Chanchiwong advised that to prevent fraud caused by deepfake content, ask the person you are talking to on the screen to move their head and ask questions about things that only you two know. He also urged people not to let down their guard under any circumstances if the other party asks for money.
Deepfake is a compound word of deep learning, an AI technology, and fake, which means fake. It is a technology that synthesizes the image or voice of a specific person into digital content using artificial intelligence. Recently, the number of cases of false information abusing deepfake technology is increasing.
In the United States, an obscene image containing a photo of pop star Taylor Swift’s face was distributed on social media, sparking outrage among fans. Ahead of the New Hampshire primary on the 23rd of last month, a deepfake audio impersonating President Joe Biden was circulated urging local Democratic Party members to boycott the primary, sparking controversy.
Hyewon Lee, Donga.com
Source: Donga
Mark Jones is a world traveler and journalist for News Rebeat. With a curious mind and a love of adventure, Mark brings a unique perspective to the latest global events and provides in-depth and thought-provoking coverage of the world at large.