A finance employee at a multinational corporation was deceived into transferring $25 million to scammers who used deepfake technology to impersonate the company’s chief financial officer during a video conference, according to Hong Kong police.
In this sophisticated scam, the employee was lured into what appeared to be a regular video call with several colleagues. However, all the participants were deepfake recreations, Hong Kong police revealed during a Friday briefing.
“In the multi-person video conference, it turned out that everyone [the worker saw] was fake,” said Senior Superintendent Baron Chan Shun-ching, speaking to the city’s public broadcaster RTHK.
Chan explained that the employee initially grew suspicious after receiving a message purportedly from the company’s UK-based CFO. The message discussed the need for a confidential transaction, which led the employee to suspect it might be a phishing attempt.
However, the employee’s concerns were alleviated after the video call, during which the participants looked and sounded exactly like recognized colleagues, Chan said.
Convinced that the other attendees were legitimate, the employee proceeded to transfer a total of 200 million Hong Kong dollars—approximately $25.6 million, the police officer added.
This case is one of several recent instances where fraudsters have utilized deepfake technology, altering publicly accessible video and other media to scam individuals out of money.
At the press briefing, Hong Kong police reported making six arrests in connection with such scams.
Chan further disclosed that eight stolen Hong Kong identity cards—reported lost by their owners—were used to make 90 loan applications and 54 bank account registrations between July and September of last year.
On at least 20 occasions, deepfake AI was used to deceive facial recognition systems by mimicking the people in the stolen identity card photos.
The scam involving the fake CFO was only uncovered when the employee later verified the transaction with the corporation’s headquarters.
Hong Kong police did not disclose the names of the company or the employee involved.
Globally, authorities are becoming increasingly concerned about the growing sophistication of deepfake technology and its potential for criminal misuse.
At the end of January, pornographic AI-generated images of American pop star Taylor Swift circulated widely on social media, highlighting the destructive capabilities of artificial intelligence.
The images, showing the singer in explicit and sexually suggestive poses, were viewed tens of millions of times before being removed from online platforms.
