Artificial intelligence has been used again for nefarious purposes, Hong Kong police have revealed. A finance worker in a multinational firm was asked to make a secret transaction by someone posing as the company’s UK-based chief financial officer and that initial doubts were overcome with deepfake technology.
After getting the phishing email, the worker was invited to a video call with several other people who looked and sounded like his colleagues, however, it was not really them and deepfake technology had been used to just make it look like them.
Nevertheless, this deception was enough to trick the worker and he remitted approximately $25.6 million to the fraudsters. This isn’t the first case in which the tech has been used badly, the Hong Kong police said there have been several incidents leading to six arrests - there is no indication that those behind the latest heist have been apprehended yet.
According to CNN, the transfer was only discovered to be a scam when the employee checked in with the company’s head office. No information about the company has been shared nor is the worker’s current employment statement known after losing so much money.
The video call that tricked the employee included several people from the company who were all being impersonated. It just goes to show how powerful the technology is and why literacy on these emerging technologies is crucial.
With the US elections coming up later this year it’ll likely be a prime target for deepfake-related misinformation campaigns, therefore, it will be crucial for big tech firms like Meta to show users the appropriate warnings to help slow the proliferation of deceptive content.
Some measures that end users can take to detect deep fakes include mismatched facial characteristics, verifying information with reputable news sources, and looking out for strange lighting, shadows, or head movements.
Source: CNN
3 Comments - Add comment