Deepfake Coworkers Managed to Trick Employees, Firm Lost $25 M

Advancement in technology offers scammers new ways to trick individuals. On Sunday, scammers in a team invited an employee of a multinational company to attend a video conference after which the employee sent over $25 Million to five accounts through 15 transactions. The deepfake colleagues looked like real people who trapped the HK clerk in the scam.     

The Whole Story of the AI-generated Deepfake Scam 

A clerk operating in a Hong Kong-based multinational company gets an online invite to attend a video conference. Except for the clerk, everyone in the meeting was AI-generated deepfakes. However, all the participants seemed real and sounded like the worker’s colleagues.  

“As the people in the meeting looked so real, the clerk made 15 transactions into five different accounts which amounted to over $25 Million,” said Baron Chan, acting as senior superintendent.        

The scammers somehow managed to download the past video of a conference and used the same to trap the HK clerk. 

The whole story started last month when the clerk received a message from the firm’s CFO for a video call to discuss the confidential transactions. This time fraudster used Artificial Intelligence to add fake voices to the video. 

The clerk was unaware of the scam until he consulted the same with the company’s head office.          

Moreover, such scams are not new to the world, but for Hong Kong, it is the first case of deepfakes in the region.  

“We want to alert the public to these new deception tactics,” Chan said.  

Regulatory’s Reaction to the Attempt 

A recent scenario of circulating a fake photo of Taylor Swift seek the attention of the US government towards such scams. Furthermore, Joe Morelle, the person who created the fake image was called for criminalizing.    

The increase in such scams worried the entire world. Additionally, the World Economic Forum (WEF) specified the negative outcomes of AI technologies. In the 19th global risk report, WEF highlights the impact of AI capabilities on businesses, individuals, economies, and the entire ecosystem.

Furthermore, the United Nations specified that online disinformation practices increased due to rapid change and advancement in technologies, particularly the AI offering deepfakes.  

This time, Hong Kong was trapped in the scam, hence, the cyber security division decided to alert the public.

“Based on the past scams, it was expected that such incidence involves two or three people. But, the recent indecent showcase efficient use of AI technology by the fraudsters to conduct online meetings and involved lots of participants”, said Chan.

He also advised people to avoid falling into such scams, confirm the details before attending such meetings, and question the other participants to check whether they are real or fake.           

Additionally, the Cyber Security Division, the part of the Hong Kong police force is assigned with the task of ensuring citizens’ safety by focusing on technology crime prevention. 

Adarsh Singh is a true connoisseur of Defi and Blockchain technologies, who left his job at a “Big 4” multinational finance firm to pursue crypto and NFT trading full-time. He has a strong background in finance, with MBA from a prestigious B-school. He delves deep into these innovative fields, unraveling their intricacies. Uncovering hidden gems, be it coins, tokens or NFTs, is his expertise. NFTs drive deep interest for him, and his creative analysis of NFTs opens up engaging narratives. He strives to bring decentralized digital assets accessible to the masses.