The Hong Kong branch of a multinational company has lost $25.6 million (HK$200 million) after scammers using deepfake technology posed as the firm’s chief financial officer (CFO) in a video conference call and ordered money transfers, according to the police, in what is being highlighted as first of its kind cases in the city.
First of its kind in Hong Kong
The money transaction was ordered during a meeting where it was found that everyone present on the video calls except the victim were deepfakes of real people, said the Hong Kong police, on Friday (Feb 2).
The police highlighted this case as being the first of its kind in Hong Kong which also involved a large amount of money. However, they did not reveal the identity of the employee or the company.
Acting senior superintendent Baron Chan Shun-ching said that in previous cases the scam victims were tricked by one-on-one video calls.
“This time, in a multi-person video conference, it turns out that everyone you see is fake,” said the Hong Kong police official, as quoted by the South China Morning Post (SCMP).
Scammers in this case used deepfake technology to turn publicly available video and other footage of staff members into convincing meeting participants.
What we know about the case
According to Chan, the worker involved had been suspicious since he received the message purportedly from the company’s United Kingdom-based CFO and first dismissed it as a phishing email back in January. However, the talks of the need for a secret transaction continued.
The worker, according to Chan, dismissed the doubts after the video call because other people in attendance had looked and sounded just like colleagues and some others he recognised.
The police official also said that scammers asked the victim to introduce himself but did not actually interact with the person during the meeting. Additionally, the fake images on the screen mainly gave orders before the call ended abruptly.
The employee then followed the instructions and made 15 transfers totalling $25.6 million to five Hong Kong bank accounts.
The entire episode lasted a week before the worker involved made an inquiry with the company’s headquarters.
Six people arrested
Amid a number of such incidents, Chan said the police have arrested six people so far. He also spoke about eight stolen Hong Kong identity cards involved in scams.
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According to the police, there have been at least 20 such incidents where AI deepfakes have been used to trick facial recognition programs into making 90 loan applications and 54 bank account registrations, by imitating the people pictured on the identity cards, between July and September last year.
(With inputs from agencies)
