New Delhi: A sophisticated deepfake video recently swindled a company out of a staggering $25.6 million (equivalent to over Rs 200 crore). The perpetrator cunningly posed as the Chief Financial Officer (CFO) during a critical conference call. The unsuspecting employees believed they were interacting with the real CFO, but in truth, they were dealing with an avatar created by the imposter.
The scam involved leveraging deepfake technology to manipulate publicly available video footage. The scammers convincingly replicated the meeting’s participants, making them appear and sound genuine. Remarkably, this incident marks the first time deepfakes have been used to deceive a financial institution, according to the Hong Kong Police.
During the video conference, the impostor instructed employees to transfer a total of HK$200 million (approximately $25.5 million) to five different Hong Kong bank accounts. This situation underscores the need for vigilance in identifying and combating deepfake threats.
Notably, deepfake technology isn’t limited to financial fraud. Recently, explicit deepfake images of American singer Taylor Swift circulated online, prompting action from the Elon Musk-led microblogging platform, X (formerly known as Twitter). In India, prominent figures like Akshay Kumar, Alia Bhatt, Ratan Tata, and even Prime Minister Narendra Modi have fallen victim to deepfake manipulation. The government emphasizes the urgency of promptly detecting and removing misinformation, including deepfakes, from social media platforms to prevent further harm.