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In a first known instance of crime using deepfake technology, a deepfake audio has been used to scam a company executive of funds worth $243,000 or nearly Rs 1.75 crores. According to the Wall Street Journal, the people behind the scam used a commercially available voice-generating AI software to impersonate the boss of a German parent company that owns a UK-based energy firm.
They tricked the UK firm’s CEO to transfer funds to a Hungarian supplier in an hour with guarantees that the transfer would be reimbursed immediately. The company chief executive reportedly did not suspect a thing given the audio cleverly imitated the global CEO. The perpetrators tried to trick him again by asking for another urgent money transfer, but the second time, the British CEO refused to make payment.
The report mentions that the said funds transferred to Hungary were eventually moved to Mexico and other locations. The incident happened in March and the culprits remain unrecognised at the moment. The names of the companies involved in the incident were not disclosed citing ongoing investigation.
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The firm was insured by Euler Hermes Group, which covered the entire cost of the payment, but it confirms one thing– AI-based impersonation attacks are only going to get more frequent in the future given how deepfake is evolving and improving as a technology.
With Deepfake technology, the risk is that these are sophisticated tools that can mimic voice, mannerisms, video, and images. Unlike the obvious fake image and videos that are shared on the internet, deepfakes are very convincing and much harder to point out as fake.
Also read | Explained: What is deepfake?
In the case of this particular business that was targetted, the audio was clearly good enough to fool the British CEO into thinking that he was talking to his boss. Even the German accent was spot on, according to the reports.
