Local media, citing Hong Kong police, reported that scammers stole around $25 million after using deepfake technology to deceive an employee at a multinational company’s branch, as reported by Business Insider.
In January, an employee in the company’s finance department received a message from someone claiming to be the company’s financial director based in the UK, according to the South China Morning Post, citing the police.
The employee then conducted a video call with the company’s financial director and other employees, all of whom were using deepfake technology.
Based on the instructions received during that call, the employee transferred $200 million Hong Kong dollars, equivalent to $25.6 million US dollars, to various bank accounts in Hong Kong through 15 transfer operations, according to Business Insider.
A week passed after the fraud, before the employee contacted the company’s headquarters to verify, realizing then that something was amiss.
Hong Kong police did not mention the company’s name or the involved employees. They stated that the scammers created fake images of the meeting participants based on publicly available video clips and voices, according to the site.
Investigations are ongoing, with no arrests made yet, according to media reports.
Deepfake videos generated by technology raise global concerns. Pop star Taylor Swift is one of the latest celebrities to fall victim to deepfake pornographic videos that spread widely on platforms like X and Telegram last month.
Many politicians are calling for federal legislation to combat deepfakes.
In May 2023, Democratic Representative Joseph Morelle introduced the Deepfake Prevention Act, which would make it illegal to share pornographic material that uses deepfake without consent. The bill was referred to the House Judiciary Committee.
Leave a Reply