8 arrested over running Hong Kong scam ring, opening bank accounts with deepfakes
Successful attempts to open bank accounts involved images created by merging scammers’ faces and those on lost IDs using artificial intelligence, force says
Hong Kong police have arrested eight people accused of running a scam ring that bypassed bank verification checks to open accounts by replacing photos on lost identity cards with deepfakes incorporating fraudsters’ facial features.
Senior Superintendent Philip Lui Che-ho of the force’s financial intelligence and investigation bureau said on Saturday the raid was part of a citywide crackdown on scams, cybercrime and money laundering carried out between April 7 and 17.
Officers arrested 503 people, aged 18 to 80. Losses in the cases exceeded HK$1.5 billion (US$193.2 million).
Chief Inspector Sun Yi-ki of the force’s cybersecurity and technology crime bureau said officers apprehended the eight suspects on Thursday for allegedly using at least 21 Hong Kong identity cards reported as lost to make 44 applications to open local bank accounts.
“The syndicate first tried to use deepfake technology to merge the scammer’s facial features with the cardholder’s appearance, followed by uploading the scammer’s selfie to impersonate the cardholder and bypass the online verification process,” Sun said.
Thirty of the 44 applications were successful after the fabricated images passed through online identity checks at banks.