Deepfake! It is really an interesting thing and kind of scary. A company lost a whopping $25 million because of this thing called deepfake technology. Let's find out what happened!
The Deception
According to local media reports, some bad guys used deepfake technology to trick an employee at a big company. They pretended to be the company's chief financial officer, even though they weren't! Sneaky, right?
So, this employee got a letter from the fake CFO in January. Then, they had a video call with the fake CFO and some other employees. But guess what? All of them were using deepfake technology too! It's like a movie, but not a fun one.
The Money Transfer
During that video call, the fake CFO gave the employee some instructions. And unfortunately, the employee followed those instructions and transferred a huge amount of money - 200 million Hong Kong dollars, which is about $25.6 million - to different bank accounts in Hong Kong. Yikes!
But here's the crazy part: it took a whole week for the employee to realize that something fishy was going on. They finally contacted the company's headquarters and found out they had been tricked. Can you imagine how shocked they must have been?
The Investigation
The police in Hong Kong are still investigating this case, but they haven't caught the bad guys yet. They say the scammers used publicly available videos and audios to create fake images of the people in the meeting. It's like they were playing pretend, but in a really bad way.
Deepfake Concerns
Deepfake videos are becoming a big problem all around the world. Even famous people like Taylor Swift have fallen victim to these fake videos. They spread like wildfire on platforms like X and Telegram. It's not cool at all!
That's why many politicians are calling for a law to fight against deepfakes. In 2023, a guy named Joseph Morrell introduced a law called the Intimate Deepfakes Prevention Act. It would make it illegal to share deepfake videos without consent. Sounds like a good idea, right?
Thus, a company lost a crazy amount of money because of deepfake technology. It's a reminder that we need to be careful and skeptical, especially when it comes to things we see online. Stay safe out there!
Source: Business Insider
