HK's first deepfake video conference scam involving HK$200 million

Police received a report of the first deepfake video conference scam in the city, in which the fraudster impersonated the victim's boss and swindled HK$200 million from a company last month.

An employee of a multinational company received a message from the scammer, who claimed to be the "Chief Financial Officer" of the London head office, asking to join an encrypted virtual meeting with four to six staffers.

The victim recalled that the "CFO" spent most of the time giving investment instructions, asking him to transfer funds to different accounts, and ending the meeting in a hurry.

He found that he was cheated after he made 15 transactions totaling HK$200 million to five local accounts within a week and reported to the police.

It was discovered that the speech of the "CFO" was only a virtual video generated by the scammer through deepfake. Police said other employees of the same company were also instructed to attend the meeting.

Officers said the scammer even utilized WhatsApp, email, and "one-to-one" video conferences to communicate with Hong Kong staff members to add credibility to the scams.

Tyler Chan Chi-wing, the senior inspector of the Cyber Security and Technology Crime Bureau (CSTCB), said fraudsters tend to prey on company employees by pretending to be their supervisors since subordinates generally may not interrupt their supervisors.

Chan stated that scammers usually create a sense of urgency by saying they are swamped and leaving the meeting immediately after giving instructions, causing victims to skip asking for clarifications.

He reminded the public to ask questions to test the participant's identity when encountering a suspicious video conference. Chan also urged the citizens not to provide biometric information easily, such as faces and fingerprints, and to be careful if money transfers are involved.

Police have received a total of 31,843 cases involving technology crimes in the first 11 months of last year, with losses amounting to HK$5.1 billion, a year-on-year increase of 72 percent.

Experts suggested the public uploads suspicious videos to free online detection platforms, which will determine whether the videos are made with deepfake techniques based on the video signals.