Reported AI-Cloned Voice Used to Deceive Hong Kong Bank Manager in Purported $35 Million Fraud Scheme
Description
In January 2020, a Hong Kong-based bank manager for a Japanese company reportedly authorized $35 million in transfers after receiving a call from someone whose voice matched the company director's. According to Emirati investigators, scammers used AI-based voice cloning to impersonate the executive. The fraud allegedly involved at least 17 individuals and reportedly led to global fund transfers that triggered a UAE investigation. U.S. authorities were reportedly later asked to help trace part of the funds sent to U.S. banks.
Actors
Alleged Deployers
- cybercriminals
- scammers
- transnational-fraud-rings
Alleged Developers
- deepfake-technology-developers
- synthetic-audio-generation-technology-developers
Harmed Parties
- unnamed-japanese-firm
- unnamed-hong-kong-based-branch-manager-of-unnamed-japanese-firm
- general-public-of-the-united-arab-emirates
- centennial-bank
Classification
Risk Domain
Malicious Actors & MisuseRisk Subdomain
4.3. Fraud, scams, and targeted manipulation
MIT Risk Profile
Source
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Regulating ChatGPT and other Large Generative AI Models
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