"Multinational Firm Loses $34 Million in Deepfake CFO Scam"

The Hong Kong branch of a multinational company lost $25.6 million after scammers used deepfake technology to pose as the firm’s CFO in a video conference call and ordered money transfers, marking the first such case in the city. The victim was the only real person in the meeting, with everyone else being deepfakes. The scammers used publicly available footage of staff members to create convincing meeting participants. The employee made 15 transfers totaling $25.6 million to five Hong Kong bank accounts before realizing it was a scam. Six people have been arrested in connection with the incident, and there have been at least 20 similar incidents involving AI deepfakes in Hong Kong.