Fraudsters stole more than R$125 million from the company in fake AI-generated meetings

Working in the finance department of a multinational company in Hong Kong Transferred more than $25 million to scammers after being fooled by his boss’s deepfake during a fake video conference. The fraud, which occurred in January, was discovered by local authorities on Sunday (4).

According to Hong Kong police, the employee was invited to join the online meeting, which was allegedly attended by the company’s chief financial officer (CFO) and other colleagues. But, the guy was the only real person in the chat — the remaining participants were created by artificial intelligence.

In speech, The so-called CFO asked the worker to make 15 transfers to five bank accounts, totaling more than R$125 million at that day’s exchange rate.. She was initially suspicious, but after other “people” joined the virtual meeting, she was convinced she was talking to her boss.

Worker But after contacting the company’s headquarters, he discovered he was a target for scammers. The names and other information of the company and the victim involved in the first deepfake video conferencing scam in Hong Kong were not disclosed.

How was the fake video created?

According to the investigation into the incident, perpetrators of the scam would have access to real videos of the company’s previous video conferences. They then used artificial intelligence tools to add fake voices to people appearing in the images to fool the victim.

Authorities have warned that such scams are on the rise in Hong Kong, where six people accused of using the technology for criminal activities have been arrested in recent weeks. Also, at least 20 attempts to use deepfakes to fool facial recognition software in the region.

As local police emphasize, checking information through the company’s official communication channels is one of the precautions to be taken to avoid falling for deepfake video conferencing scams. It is also useful to ask questions to confirm whether people participating in suspicious online meetings are real.

Recently, singer Taylor Swift was targeted by cybercriminals who created things using technology. AI-generated pornographic images featuring the pop star’s appearance. American senators then introduced a bill that would make it easier for victims of such campaigns to sue the perpetrators.