$20 million stolen by deepfakes

Hong Kong police are investigating the apparent theft of $20 million by AI-assisted scammers who persuaded a junior employee of a multinational company to make multiple bank transfers by posing as senior colleagues on a video call. Baron Chan, the officer in charge, told a press conference a clerk at the unnamed company was invited to the call by someone claiming to be its chief financial officer. Others on the call – all deepfakes created with scraped company video and AI – persuaded the clerk to make 15 transfers to five local bank accounts worth a total of HK$200 million. The clerk was the only real person on the call but only realised after checking with (real) superiors afterwards. Chan said what was new about the scam was the simultaneous use of multiple deepfakes; one-on-one AI fraud is now old hat. What's not clear is whether the clerk's interlocutors were able to improvise video chat in real time or spoke from scripts. Or were they AI puppets fronting for flesh-and-blood thieves? Suggestions welcome.