Shocking $25 Million Scam: Deepfake Scammers Target Major Engineering Firm
In a shocking scam, deepfake technology was used to trick an employee at Arup, a major engineering firm, into handing over $25 million. This shows how advanced AI scams are becoming more common and dangerous.
The scam happened in January. An employee in Arup's Hong Kong office thought they were on a video call with the company's Chief Financial Officer (CFO) and other staff members. However, the video call was fake. Hong Kong public broadcaster RTHK reported that the scammers used AI to create realistic video and audio of the CFO and other employees.
During the call, the employee was told to transfer HK$200 million (about $25.6 million) to five different bank accounts. The employee did this over 15 transactions. It took about a week before the employee realized it was a scam when th...