Deepfake Scam: Hong Kong Firm Loses $25 Million (Image: Pixabay)

The world is witnessing a potential increase in crime to deepfake AI technology. Recently, a multinational company based in Hong Kong lost $25 million in a deepfake scam. Hong Kong police said that the employee was duped into paying this huge amount to fraudsters in a deepfake video conference call.

The South China Morning Post reported that the employee had been tricked into transferring the firm”s money by someone posing as the company”s UK-based chief financial officer. The employee engaged in a conference call with the alleged CFO and other company employees. The scammers also ordered a money transfer during the call. The report says that everyone present on the conference call except the victim was a fake representation of real people.

The fraudsters reportedly used deepfake technology to turn publicly available videos into convincing versions of the meeting’s participants. The Hong Kong police have not yet disclosed details about the company or the employee. Meanwhile, RTHK, Hong Kong”s public broadcaster, reported that the employee was working as a clerk at the unnamed firm.

According to Hong Kong police, the scam was the first of its kind in the country and involved a large sum. Police also noted that victims were tricked into one-on-one video calls in the previous cases. “This time, in a multi-person video conference, it turns out that everyone you see is fake,” said acting senior superintendent Baron Chan Shun-ching, as quoted by the South China Morning Post.

In a recently released report, cybersecurity solutions firm McAfee said that cyber criminals continue to exploit rapidly advancing AI technology to create dangerous deepfakes and carry out increasingly sophisticated cyber scams. Apart from financial scams, McAfee also noted that cyberbullying will pick up with the help of deepfake technology. Meanwhile, the potential delay in developing accurate tools to tackle deepfakes is also raising concerns.