Finance worker falls victim to deepfake scam, loses $25 million

A finance worker at a multinational company in Hong Kong was duped into transferring $25 million to fraudsters who used deepfake technology to impersonate the company’s chief financial officer (CFO) and other colleagues in a video conference call.

The scam, revealed by Hong Kong police on Friday, is one of the first cases in the city involving deepfake technology. This technology uses artificial intelligence to manipulate images and videos to create realistic but fake representations of people.

According to the police, the finance worker received an e-mail in January from someone claiming to be the CFO of the company, based in the UK, asking him to participate in a secret transaction. The worker was initially suspicious and thought it was a phishing e-mail, but he was convinced after joining a video call with several other people who looked and sounded like his co-workers.

However, unbeknownst to him, all the people on the video call were deepfake creations, using publicly available footage of the staff members to fool the facial recognition software. The fake CFO instructed the worker to transfer $25 million to five bank accounts in Hong Kong, claiming it was for a confidential project.

The worker followed the instructions and made 15 transfers over a week before he realized something was wrong and contacted the company’s headquarters. By then, the fraudsters had already withdrawn most of the money from the accounts.

Hong Kong police said they have arrested six people in connection with the scam and are investigating whether more victims or suspects are involved. They also warned the public to be vigilant and verify the identities of people they communicate online, especially when dealing large sums of money.

Deepfake technology has been widely used for entertainment and malicious purposes, such as creating fake celebrities, spreading political misinformation, and blackmailing people. Experts have warned that the technology seriously threatens privacy, security, and democracy and have called for more regulation and education to combat its misuse.