‘Deepfake’ scam uncovered in China

BEIJING — A fraud in northern China that used sophisticated “deepfake” technology to get a man to transfer money to a supposed friend has sparked concern about the potential of artificial intelligence (AI) in financial crimes.            

China has been tightening scrutiny of such technology and apps amid a rise in AI-driven fraud, involving mainly manipulation of voice and facial data. New rules were adopted in January to protect victims.

Police in the city of Baotou, in the region of Inner Mongolia, said the perpetrator used AI-powered face-swapping technology to impersonate a friend of the victim in a video call and receive a transfer of 4.3-million yuan ($622,000).

He transferred the money in the belief that his friend needed to make a deposit during a bidding process, the police said in a statement on Saturday.

The man realised he had been duped only after the friend expressed ignorance of the situation, said the police, who recovered most of the stolen funds and are trying to trace the rest.

The case unleashed discussion on microblogging site Weibo about the threat to online privacy and security, with the hashtag “#AI scams are exploding across the country” gaining more than 120 million views on Monday.

“This shows that photos, voices and videos all can be utilised by scammers,” one user wrote. “Can information security rules keep up with these people’s techniques?”

Reuters