$200m lost following 'CFO's order in meeting'

A victim fell prey to a sophisticated scam known as the "artificial intelligence deep fake video conference" in a worrying incident in Hong Kong.

That saw the victim's company, a multinational, conned out of HK$200 million in the space of just one month.

The scam involved con artists orchestrating an internet meeting attended by individuals masquerading as the victim's "superior and colleagues."

The victim, a financial department employee of the company's Hong Kong branch, told police the scam began with a message from someone claiming to be the chief financial officer at the firm's United Kingdom headquarters.

The victim was asked to participate in an "encrypted trading meeting" with four to six others.

Acting senior superintendent Baron Chan Shun-ching from the cyber security and technology crime bureau said "previous scams mostly relied on one-on-one video conferences. However, this time, [the scam] employed a video conference of multiple people, in which all were deep fake creations."

The scammers went to great lengths to make it seem authentic, including creating fake personas resembling staff from the headquarters' financial department, which the victim recognized.

During the meeting, the "CFO" primarily focused on giving investment instructions, with the victim told to transfer funds to bank accounts before abruptly ending the meeting. The victim transferred HK$200 million to five local bank accounts in a week.

It was only a week after that, when the victim contacted the UK headquarters that the scam was uncovered.

Chan said the victim's colleagues were also taken in, with the "CFO" communicating with Hong Kong staff through WhatsApp messages, emails, and one-on-one video conferences.

The scammers employed deep fake videos, utilizing voices and video clips sourced from the internet.

The fraudsters claimed to be busy senior executives to force on the victim a reluctance to interrupt.

The victim was only asked to provide a brief self-introduction and had no opportunity to interact.

To prevent such scams, Senior Inspector Tyler Chan Chi-wing said people could request others in a meeting to cover part of their faces, or avoid sharing biometric features like full frontal facial photos or fingerprints online.

Sam Lam Sum, associate vice president at Hong Kong College of Technology, said the city's IT industry was exploring the use of AI to identify deep fake videos, achieving an accuracy rate of over 70 percent.

There has been a significant rise in cyber investment scams, with 4,703 cases between last January and November. That was a 1.8-fold increase compared to the same period in 2022, resulting in losses of HK$3 billion.

Recently, a deep fake video promoting high-returns investments online saw impersonations of Chief Executive John Lee Ka-chiu and Tesla founder Elon Musk. Although no reports were received, officers took action to have the video removed from social media.