‘Everyone looked real’: multinational firm’s Hong Kong office loses HK$200 million after scammers stage deepfake video meeting
- Employee fooled after seeing digitally recreated versions of company’s chief financial officer and others in video call
- Deepfake technology has been in the spotlight after fake explicit images of pop superstar Taylor Swift spread on social media sites
A multinational company lost HK$200 million (US$25.6 million) in a scam after employees at its Hong Kong branch were fooled by deepfake technology, with one incident involving a digitally recreated version of its chief financial officer ordering money transfers in a video conference call, police said.
Everyone present on the video calls except the victim was a fake representation of real people. The scammers applied deepfake technology to turn publicly available video and other footage into convincing versions of the meeting’s participants.
Police said they were highlighting the case as it was the first of its kind in Hong Kong and involved a large sum. They did not reveal details about the company or the employees involved.
Acting senior superintendent Baron Chan Shun-ching said that in previous cases, scam victims were tricked in one-on-one video calls.
“This time, in a multi-person video conference, it turns out that everyone you see is fake,” he said, adding that the scammers were able to generate convincing representations of targeted individuals that looked and sounded like the actual people.
Deepfake technology was in the news last month, after fake sexually explicit images of pop superstar Taylor Swift were spread on social media sites.
The police report was made by an employee in the branch’s finance department, who received what appeared to be a phishing message in mid-January, apparently from the company’s UK-based chief financial officer saying a secret transaction had to be carried out.
