An unwitting employee from a multinational company based in Hong Kong was tricked into sending large sums of money following a conference call that made use of deepfake technology that vividly mimics the company’s chief financial officer.
Using said technology, which made use of the subject’s available images and a fake voice, the perpetrators managed to replicate the CFO, both in appearance and speech.
While initially met with suspicion, the employee ultimately fell for the request for a confidential transaction when the video call involving the familiar colleague was conducted.
A further look into the matter revealed that the employee made “15 transactions” across “five local bank accounts,” totaling HK$200 million (Php1.5 billion).
It is believed that the fraudsters may have downloaded videos of the individual in advance and then used AI to tie in a fake voice to develop the generated persona.
Based on a preliminary investigation, the Hong Kong Police classified the case as “obtaining property by deception.” The police’s cybercrime division has tagged the case as the first of its kind in the region.
Using the incident as a precedent, the public is being cautioned about online meetings with multiple participants, due to the possibility of fraudsters using AI in those conferences.
Since the rise of artificial intelligence and its subsequent proliferation, many fraudulent activities have arisen because of it, largely at the expense of known and popular individuals, like celebrities and politicians.
Via: Yahoo News