Deepfake videos of TV news presenters are being used to dupe gullible viewers into logging onto illegal gambling sites where malware is then downloaded onto their devices. News anchors on Sky and other channels appear to be quoting Apple CEO Tim Cook recommending an app where users can easily get rich by winning vast sums of money. The news reports have been identified as deepfake videos. It has been further revealed that thousands of similar videos of deepfakes of journalists have been circulated in the US and the UK.
Apple’s app store has also been used to host seemingly innocent AI-generated children’s games that take users to illegal gambling sites. These illegal sites offer none of the protection and safeguards of legitimate sites, but instead are used to steal their victims’ financial details so the scammers can fleece them mercilessly.
Growing threat for corporates and consumers
This new generation of deepfakes highlights what is now a growing threat for consumers and companies alike. AI-generated deepfakes are becoming increasingly easy to produce and getting harder for the untrained eye to spot.
A multinational firm in Singapore recently nearly lost almost US$500,000 after a deepfake video conference scam preyed on the company’s finance director. The money was sent after a finance director was duped into sending the amount through an impersonation scam of the company’s chief financial officer during a video conference regarding a supposed restructuring of the firm’s regional business on March 26. Fortunately, the Singapore Police Force said its Anti-Scam Centre (ASC) worked with the Hong Kong Police Force’s Anti-Deception Coordination Centre (ADCC) to trace and withhold the cash.
Last year, a finance worker at a multinational firm in Hong Kong was also tricked into paying out $39 million to fraudsters using a deepfake video of the company’s chief financial officer in a video conference call, according to Hong Kong police. The worker was duped into attending a video call with what he thought were several other members of staff, but all of whom were also deepfakes.
The problem was also highlighted at last summer’s InfoSecurity Europe, widely acknowledged as the chief global challenger to RSA in the US, which kicked off with a Keynote speech and panel discussion on “Mapping the Deepfake Landscape.” Broadcaster and researcher Henry Adjer quoted numerous examples of the increasing sophistication of malicious deepfakes.
