On Monday 29th January 2024, a local clerk at an engineering firm reported to the Hong Kong authorities that they had attended a video conference call and been duped into paying HK$200m (GB£20m) of their company’s money to a fraudster.11 Soon after the investigation was started by the Hong Kong Police Force, senior superintendent Baron Chan realised that this business had suffered one of the boldest thefts using AI to date.
Within a week, Chan sent a warning to the world, notifying media that this was a deepfake attack on the business.12 He said: “Because the people in the video conference looked like the real people, the informant made 15 transactions as instructed… I believe the fraudster downloaded videos in advance and then used AI to add fake voices to use in the video conference.”13