A finance employee at a multinational company paid $25 million to fraudsters who used deepfake technology to pose as the company's chief financial officer in a video conference, according to Hong Kong police.
The scam resulted in the worker being tricked into participating in a video call with what he thought were several other staff members, but they were all actually fake creations, Hong Kong police said at a press conference last Friday. -Friday (02).
“(In) video conferencing with several people, it turned out that everyone [que ele viu] were fake,” senior superintendent Baron Chan Shun-ching told city public broadcaster RTHK.
Chan said the worker became suspicious after receiving a message purporting to be from the UK-based company's chief financial officer. Initially, the worker suspected that it was a phishing email, as it spoke of the need to carry out a secret transaction.
However, the worker put aside his initial doubts after the video call because other people present looked and sounded like colleagues he recognized, Chan said.
Believing that everyone else on the call was real, the worker agreed to remit a total of HK$200 million — about $25.6 million, the police official added.
At Friday's press conference, Hong Kong police said they had made six arrests in connection with such fraud.
Chan said eight stolen Hong Kong identity cards – all reported lost by their owners – were used to make 90 loan applications and 54 bank account registrations between July and September last year.
On at least 20 occasions, AI deepfakes have been used to fool facial recognition programs by imitating people depicted on ID cards, according to police.
The scam involving the fake CEO was only discovered when the employee later consulted the corporation's headquarters.
Hong Kong police did not reveal the name or details of the company or worker.
Authorities around the world are increasingly concerned about the sophistication of deepfake technology and the nefarious uses it can have.
At the end of January, pornographic images of the American pop star Taylor Swift generated by AI, have spread across social media, highlighting the harmful potential represented by artificial intelligence technology.
The photos – which show the singer in sexually suggestive and explicit positions – were viewed tens of millions of times before being removed from social platforms.
Source: CNN Brasil
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