Tech Scammers Trick Finance Pro Into $25M Payout With Deepfake

In an elaborate scam, a multinational firm’s finance professional was outwitted into transferring a staggering $25 million to fraudsters. The criminals posed as the company’s top financial officer and other staff members, using deepfake technology, according to Hong Kong police.

The unknowing worker attended a video call, which he believed to be with other company employees. However, the reality was that each participant was a deepfake impersonation. The finance worker felt something was off when he received a communication claiming to be from the company’s CFO based in the U.K. This message hinted at a covert transaction.

Initially, the finance worker thought it was a typical online scam. Yet, his doubts faded after the video conference. The participants resembled his colleagues so closely in their appearance and voice that it quelled his suspicions. Subsequently, he agreed to transfer about $25.6 million, believing everyone to be genuine.

This shocking incident is just one among a rising number of scams, where criminals use deepfake technology to tamper with videos or images and trick people into parting with their money. Hong Kong police revealed their arrest of six individuals connected to similar frauds during a recent press conference.

The police found eight Hong Kong identity cards, reported lost, that were used to apply for 90 loans and register 54 bank accounts during a three-month period last year. In at least 20 instances, artificial intelligence deepfakes successfully deceived facial recognition software by imitating the faces on the identity cards.

The massive $25 million scam came to light only when the fooled employee cross-verified with his company’s head office later. The identity of the company and the individual involved have not been disclosed by Hong Kong police.

As the sophistication of deepfake technology advances, worldwide authorities are expressing growing concerns about its potential misuse. A case in point is the recent circulation of explicit, artificially created images of American singer Taylor Swift on social media, exemplifying the damaging potential of this technology. The pictures, spreading rapidly across various platforms, were viewed by millions before they were taken down.

This rising trend of scams, coupled with the advancements in technology, emphasizes the need for vigilance and the necessity to verify information, especially when money transactions are involved. The era of deepfakes reveals a whole new face of cybercrime that we all need to be aware of and safeguard against.