Hong Kong Video Deepfake Scam Nets HK$200 Million, Fraud Involved Simulation of Multiple Video Conference Participants

By Scott Ikeda for CPO Magazine
Tuesday, February 13, 2024

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What is easily the most ambitious deepfake scam yet has taken place in Hong Kong, where attackers were able to convince an employee of an unnamed company to transfer HK$200 million (about $25 million) via a fake video conference populated by simulations of the CFO and other personnel. Fraud involving deepfake audio is increasingly common, but this is the first known scheme of this sort to incorporate fake representations of multiple people.

Dr Ilia Kolochenko, CEO and Chief Architect at ImmuniWeb, thinks that Zoom and similar platforms that attackers will make use of in this way will have to play a part in detection and prevention of deepfake scams: “I don’t think that enacting additional laws to regulate deep fakes will be a solution, moreover, in most countries use of deep fakes for illicit purposes is already a criminally punishable offense under the existing laws. What we really need is to add AI-content detection mechanisms to all major social networks and platforms where users can share content, as well as integrating detection of AI-generated content to spam filters, so all non-human content will be visibly marked as such.” Read Full Article