Deepfake / Artificial Intelligent (AI) Scam

How it works:

• Deepfake is a type of AI used to create fake images, audio, or videos of events or individuals. The word deep comes from deep learning, which is a field of learning interesting information from large amounts of datasets.
• When these deep learning-based algorithms are used to create some bogus content, then the given technology is called deep fake.
• Fraudsters are believed to have used deepfake technology to modify publicly available video and/or other footage to mislead people into transferring money to the fraudster.
• There was an incident in February 2024 where a scammer had successfully tricked a multinational firm for about USD$26mil by impersonating senior executives of the said firm using deepfake technology.
• In this incident, the firm's employee received a video conference calls from the fraudster posing as senior officer of the firm and requested the said employee to transfer fund to the designated bank account.
• In this incident, the scammers have collected publicly available videos of the impersonation targets via social media and have successfully used deepfake technology to emulate their voice / image in attempts to lure the victim to follow their instruction.

How to avoid it:

• Train employees to detect common signs of deepfakes such as unusual skin tones, unnatural eye movements, odd lighting, strange or inconsistent shadows, disproportional sizes of faces and bodies, awkward postures or body movements, inconsistencies in tone or intonation, or lip-synch errors.
• Be cautious when transferring fund to recipient requesting for payment through online meeting. Always reconfirm the request via other channel / media before effecting payment.