The Judiciary Police (PJ) said in a statement yesterday that – unlike Hong Kong and elsewhere – Macau has still not received any reports about scammers using deepfake technology to defraud their victims, warning the public to be vigilant to avoid any financial losses.
The statement acknowledged that with the rapid development of generative artificial intelligence (AI) in recent years, it was difficult for the public to distinguish the real from the fake with deepfake technology, adding that fraudsters can download any video from the internet, and then produce a new one by altering the mouth shape and matching the fake voice with deepfake technology, before broadcasting it publicly via video call in order to deceive the public.
According to Hong Kong media reports on Sunday, a multinational firm was cheated out of HK$200 million by scammers purporting to be the company’s senior executives with the use of deepfake technology, in which a company employee received bogus video conference calls from the “senior executives” who requested he or she transfer the money to their designated bank accounts. It was reportedly the first time that the Hong Kong police discovered a case in which scammers used generative AI technology to defraud an enterprise.
In the statement, members of the public were urged to take a raft of measures against such scams, including reconfirming with the other party through other channels to minimise the risk of fraud when receiving suspicious transfer requests; improving enterprises’ supervision and management procedures for the transfer of large sums of money; in particular, transfers or remittances to unfamiliar accounts should be scrutinised and confirmed by more than one person, and in case of any doubt about the identity of the person or persons appearing in the video, the call receiver should always ask the caller to carry out a specified movement in front of the camera and pay close attention to whether the image on the screen is changing or not, while also asking him or her questions to confirm their identity.
The Judiciary Police also warned individuals not to provide their biometric information such as a photo of their face and fingerprints to strangers, in order to avoid being used by fraudsters to commit crimes.
Anyone, who suspects that they have been a victim of a scam should call the PJ fraud prevention hotline on 8800 7777 or report the case to the police on 993.
This poster provided by the Judiciary Police (PJ) yesterday urges members of the public to beware of deepfake scam videos.
