Company worker in Hong Kong pays out £20m in deepfake video call scam
Hong Kong police have launched an investigation after an employee at an unnamed company claimed she was duped into paying HK$200m (£20m) of her firm’s money to fraudsters in a deepfake video conference call.
Hong Kong’s public broadcaster, RTHK, reported that the employee was a clerk working for an unnamed multinational firm. It quoted acting Hong Kong Police senior superintendent Baron Chan as speculating that the fraudster used artificial intelligence to dupe the worker.
“[The fraudster] invited the informant [clerk] to a video conference that would have many participants. Because the people in the video conference looked like the real people, the informant … made 15 transactions as instructed to 5 local bank accounts, which came to a total of HK$200m,” he said.
“We can see from this case that fraudsters are able to use AI technology in online meetings, so people must be vigilant even in meetings with lots of participants.”.
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