Six people were arrested for stealing citizens’ identity cards and using the “deepfake” feature of an artificial intelligence (AI) face swap program to defraud HK$200,000 in loans from banks and financial institutions.

The six arrested men and women were aged 28 to 50, and one of the men was the mastermind. All of them were remanded in custody.

Police said between last September and this July, the syndicate used the identity cards stolen from at least eight citizens to open 54 bank accounts. They also made up to 90 loan applications to 20 banks and financial institutions, and four applications were granted, involving HK$200,000.

When required to undergo the facial recognition process, the syndicate used the AI face swap program to change into other people’s faces in a bid to cheat the system. They succeeded once, police added.

Police also said the syndicate used the stolen identity cards to register for over 30 prepaid SIM cards and sent over 7,200 phishing messages between April and May this year.

So far, police received one report in which a citizen fell victim to the phishing messages and gave the syndicate the credit card information, which was later used by the fraudsters to make purchases.

During the operation, police seized a missing identity card, 13 forged identity cards, some computers, phones, false documents, and tools used to forge the identity cards.

Superintendent Ko Tik from police's Cyber Security and Technology Crime Bureau.

Six arrested for defrauding HK$200,000 using ‘deepfake’ face swap program